YouTube is the new TV, time to move on cable

  Streaming TV has come to stay, just accept it Comcast. Obviously online on-demand services like Netflix are hugely popular but YouTube might be an even bigger player if it manages to combine the on-demand side of things with live TV.

According to new figures from the parent company Alphabet, YouTube is watched more than 100 million hours every day. And maybe even more importantly, way more people are watching it via their TV sets.

The use of TV when watching YouTube has increased around 70 percent since last year. This includes all TV devices that are somehow connected to the internet, be it a smart TV with a YouTube app or a dumber one with a Chromecast dongle or an Apple TV. 

Earlier this year Google announced that YouTube is being watched a billion hours every day. That means that watching on TV is grabbing a fairly nice slice of the entire YouTube watching pie. Obviously computers and probably especially mobile is still where it's still at. 

 

 

 

As internet based solutions are grabbing marketshare cable companies are fighting back by raising prices. At the same time Google has been improving their Google Fiber availability with the first location without TV subscription and supporting YouTube TV.

YouTube doesn't reveal the numbers of its subscription services which include YouTube Red as well as YouTube TV, a new live TV service for cable-cutters that features recording capabilities.

Clearly there's a bigger fight brewing that is about to get dirty in the coming years. One piece of that are the advertisers with whom YouTube has had some major problems recently. One has to think, though, that as the online viewers increase, the advertisers will come along naturally.

However, it remains to see how all this unfolds.