As YouTube was touting itself to advertisers during the first day of upfront presentations, the user-generated streaming service claimed that when compared to traditional TV, streaming platforms, and social media it comes in first nearly across the board.
The platform unveiled data from a study done by research firm Talk Shoppe, and commissioned by YouTube parent company Google, that asked respondents to rate services based on RISE (relevance, intellectual, sensorial, emotional). The research was done in January of this year and Talk Shoppe spoke with 2,000 participants to see how they thought various programming platforms stacked up.
The survey found that 86% of respondents believed that YouTube provided content to users that was both relevant and intellectual, a number that put them significantly ahead of its competitors, which collectively came in at 73% and 79% respectively.
In terms of the emotional impact, YouTube again came out on top with 84% claiming the service provided emotional content, while social media came in second at 80%.
The only metric that YouTube did not finish first in was sensorial, which compares how content is presented visually and auditorily. Streaming services led the way there with 76% over YouTube’s 72%.
The research also indicated popular support for the streamer’s recent strategic shift away from creating original programming. According to Deadline, “respondents were 4.2 times more likely than the average to agree with the statement that ‘telling a good story’ is more important than programming being ‘made by an established production company.’”
While streaming services continue to add subscribers, YouTube is looking to remain a unique platform. With 122 million daily active users streaming 1 billion hours of content per day, the service is no longer trying to compete with Netflix, Hulu, et al. in terms of original content; instead, it has launched a short-form spinoff called YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok and Instagram Reels.
The shift underlines the company’s return to its founding mission, to let “you” broadcast and watch the types of things that you want to.
Both YouTube proper and YouTube Shorts rely on creators large and small to provide programming that appeals to audiences across the board — along with a finely honed algorithm to get the right content in front of the right people. While this makes it a much different ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) experience than Freevee, the Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and others, it has allowed YouTube to become a major competitor when it comes to streaming time. So while it might often get overlooked in the discussions about the streaming wars, YouTube’s impact on the industry should not be underestimated.