While YouTube is increasingly emerging as a real competitor in the streaming world, the ad-supported FAST channels have quietly become a thorn in the side of SVODs as well.
How YouTube Beat Netflix and Disney in the Streaming War
Nielsen last month unveiled its Media Distributor Gauge, a companion to its parent company’s monthly Gauge report that tracks total U.S. TV consumption. In a possible surprise to those not chronically online, the new metric placed YouTube second only to Disney for April, surpassing traditional broadcasters and SVOD giants.
That trend continued into May, as YouTube saw its share of TV viewership grow to 9.7% while Disney declined slightly to 11.4%. Combined with the fact that YouTube also continues its streak as the most-used individual streaming platform, it’s clear that the UGC pioneer has fully shed its camcorder roots in favor of being home to high-caliber creators and potentially Emmy-worthy shows.
But another interesting tidbit is that while most traditional media companies either saw minimal growth or broke even, Fox made the biggest jump, from 6.1% in April to 6.4% in May. This growth is fueled in part by Tubi, a FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channel that has not historically been seen as a threat to major SVOD platforms like Disney+ and Netflix.