YouTube Overtakes Netflix: What this Means for Irish Brands
A recent study in the UK has revealed that YouTube has officially overtaken Netflix in average daily viewing time. Globally, average daily usage per YouTube account jumped from 87.2 minutes to 99.1 minutes over the last year, while Netflix declined from 100.5 to 93.4 minutes.
The biggest driver behind this milestone is a behavioural shift. People are moving away from watching YouTube exclusively on laptops or smartphones and are watching it on the big screen in the living room. YouTube’s share of viewing time on connected TVs surged to 35% while mobile fell to 31%. While Gen Z remains the most engaged demographic (averaging 111 minutes a day), the fastest growing audience segment is older males aged 55-64.
Why it Matters
This represents an important shift in how consumers treat digital video. YouTube, once treated as social media, has now evolved into a primary global attention platform and a direct entertainment destination. Consumers increasingly watching YouTube on their living room TVs, has blurred the lines between Linear TV and VOD. It fundamentally impacts the approach to media planning, video mix optimisation, and creative asset development.
This data proves that we need to re-evaluate video mix models. When planning AV campaigns, YouTube should not be viewed as merely a reach extension for TV. It needs to be budgeted and evaluated as a core pillar of the living room screen strategy. It is also important to ensure creative specifications and audio-visual storytelling adapt to a large screen TV environment rather than a 6-inch mobile format. We also need to closely monitor how cross-platform viewing is tracked to confidently advise on deduplicated reach across linear TV and Connected TV apps.
What this means for Irish Advertisers
In Ireland, TV has always held a highly trusted, premium position for advertisers. However, this data reflects a domestic change where Irish households are rapidly adopting Connected TVs.
- YouTube offers Irish advertisers massive, immediate, and highly targeted scale on the TV screens completely free of a subscription gate.
- Irish brands who traditionally rely on the high impact and mass reach of RTE, Virgin Media, and Sky to drive mental availability, can now achieve the same prime time living room impact via YouTube CTV targeting.
- It is important that Irish advertisers use robust safety and suitability controls to ensure their ads appear alongside premium, high-quality creator or broadcaster content rather than low-tier user generated videos.
- With older demographics (55-64) increasingly engaging with the platform, Irish brands should can re-evaluate YouTube to target affluent, older decision makers.
If your brand wants to win the battle for the living room screen, YouTube must be treated with the same strategic weight, creative budget, and premium execution as a traditional TV.
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