Culture
culture

YouTube hits major inflection point, says more people watch it on TV than on phones

YouTube has leveled up to the small screen (from an even smaller screen). Alphabet’s massive video platform said Tuesday that most of its viewership is happening on TVs, overtaking mobile in the US.

According to the platform, viewers are watching more than a billion hours of YouTube every day, and for the first time, more of those views are happening on TV. YouTube has been making itself more TV friendly, adding the ability to break videos up by “season.”

The milestone was revealed in YouTube CEO Neal Mohans annual priorities and outlook letter. YouTube has consistently topped Nielsens streaming platform viewership gauge for the past two years, handily beating Netflix. On the overall TV distributor list, its hot on Disney’s heels — even overtaking the studio in July.

Since 2023, YouTube TV, Alphabet’s paid streaming service, has raised its subscription prices by about 28%.

The milestone was revealed in YouTube CEO Neal Mohans annual priorities and outlook letter. YouTube has consistently topped Nielsens streaming platform viewership gauge for the past two years, handily beating Netflix. On the overall TV distributor list, its hot on Disney’s heels — even overtaking the studio in July.

Since 2023, YouTube TV, Alphabet’s paid streaming service, has raised its subscription prices by about 28%.

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Hollywood may have its best year at the box office since 2019, but streaming audiences are still obsessed with old content

Viewers are opting for catalog content over new shows and movies across (pretty much) every major streamer.

Tom Jones6/29/26
culture
Tom Jones

The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

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