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Youtube Entertainment

YouTube Has a Firm Grip on Daytime TV (nytimes.com) 34

YouTube has been winning the streaming wars for years, but its real competitive advantage comes not from prime-time viewing but from its stranglehold on daytime hours when Americans are meditating, exercising, cooking, or simply looking for background noise. At 11 a.m. in October, YouTube commanded an average audience of 6.3 million viewers compared to Netflix's 2.8 million, according to Nielsen data. Amazon drew about a million viewers at that hour, and HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock each pulled fewer than 600,000.

The gap narrows significantly at night -- Netflix's audience swells to over 11 million at 9 p.m., trailing YouTube's 12 million -- but YouTube's dominance reasserts itself in overnight hours and through the next day. Netflix is responding by bringing at least 34 video podcasts to its service next year, including "The Breakfast Club," "The Bill Simmons Podcast," and "Pardon My Take." Amazon added the Kelce brothers' "New Heights" podcast to Prime Video in September. The strategy is intentional: roughly 75 percent of all podcast listening happens between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., according to Edison Research. YouTube said viewers watched 700 million hours of video podcasts on living room devices in October alone, a 75% increase from the previous year.
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YouTube Has a Firm Grip on Daytime TV

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  • by LindleyF ( 9395567 ) on Wednesday December 24, 2025 @11:08AM (#65879623)
    The summary does not distinguish so it's impossible to know what exactly it's talking about l.
    • Americans are meditating, exercising, cooking,

      Which America are we talking about?
    • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      That was intentional by the author, and msmash, who simply stole it, wouldn't know the difference.

      Almost certainly they were counting all delivery mechanisms. It's the streaming being measured, not what app is used to select the streams.

      • I don't think it's meaningful to lump a service with random how-to videos in with having CBS on in the background and trying to compare both to a service with only on-demand TV.
        • Why not? If you've got YouTubeTV and just left it on after the morning traffic reports to play all day, what's the difference to me opening Youtube at 8am and playing (on minimum resolution) music videos all day long?

  • by froggyjojodaddy ( 5025059 ) on Wednesday December 24, 2025 @11:15AM (#65879645)
    I spend significantly more time watching YouTube videos than I do Netflix/Prime Video etc. My YouTube feed is mainly "maker" stuff like machining, woodworking, vehicle maintenance etc. but the main draw is that it's so easy to find stuff that I'm interested in as opposed to searching for a TV show/movie on Netflix that I might enjoy.
    • Youtube is free so long as you don't mind the ads. 100% of factual stuff I watch now is on youtube though I'll still dip into TV for dramas but thats about it.

      • Why should I trust an expert on youtube who allows abusive ads to interrupt his very serious show? Have I a right to be suspicious of any youtube fact-teller who relies on advertising lies for income? If lying makes the money that pays him, why shouldn't I immediately suspect them of lying to make money too?

  • How can anyone listen to youtube in the background when blaring ads start shouting at you at random intervals? How experience-ruining is it to be listening to a mellow jazz tune then suddenly without warning in the middle of a chorus a loud, obnoxious ad interrupts?

    Is everyone but me paying a subscription fee?

    All in all wasn't youtube much better before google started monetizing it?

    "You must wait a little bit (1 minutes) before using this resource; please try again later."

    Is google paying slashdot to thrott

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      How about the ads where you have to drop what you're doing and hit the skip button unless you want to listen to said ad for the next 15 minutes. Can't imagine why anyone would use an ad blocker though!

    • I used to have sports on for background noise until the color commentators got so obnoxious.
    • I block YouTube ads but also support several channels directly via patreon.

    • You're posting on /. and haven't figure out how to block youtube ads? Must be from product.
    • Is everyone but me paying a subscription fee?

      That sounds like a great question for a poll, if Slashdot still had them. I'm paying a subscription and would recommend it.

      "You must wait a little bit (1 minutes) before using this resource; please try again later."

      As far as I can tell you have posted 367 times in December, in which you typed 563 question marks. It's possible we're already getting enough.

  • Considering how difficult it is to watch videos or listen to music on YT, I'm sure the bot farms trying to generate more ad money are a not insignificant portion of those numbers.

    If you have to enable a dozen scripts and multiple other CSS elements and media just to play a 4 minute song, hoping nothing else needs enabled while you're listening, it isn't really worth the effort.

  • The ads timings are far less obnoxious when you sign in with your google account.

  • ...I suspect that most of it is crap
    Fortunately, I can avoid the pop culture crap.
    I mostly watch experts making stuff and explaining how they do it. I also watch interviews with top technologists and science shows where the presenter knows the material and explains it clearly.
    I'm not just a consumer, I make youtube videos showing glasswork, CNC machining and woodworking.
    I pay for premium to avoid ads.
    I'm a bit disappointed when they try to push shorts, games, sports and other stuff I have no interest in.
    I'm

  • ...And so does google, and they are far to wealthy to be touched.
  • by Revek ( 133289 ) on Wednesday December 24, 2025 @04:40PM (#65880379)
    I used to have youtube playing in a tab while I worked. But now ever ten minutes or so a 30 second ad will play that has to be manually skipped and sometime you have to click skip just to continue the content. I've quit using it. Its useless for daytime purposes. Usually If I want to watch something on youtube I just grab the video and watch it in a player. Even worse sometimes its two ads and every now and then it will be a massive five minute infomercial style ad. Its garbage and they lost me.

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