At Fast Company, tech writer Chris Stokel-Walker tells us,

YouTube was launched in February 2005 and soon adopted a simple motto: “Broadcast Yourself.” While we initially watched on PCs, and then smartphones, it seems that these days an increasing number of us are engaging with YouTube content on our televisions.

That’s one of the key findings of YouTube’s annual year-end wrap-up, in which the Google-owned company revealed that in 2024 users streamed a billion hours of YouTube content daily through their televisions. Putting YouTube in the heart of our living rooms, as a communal consumption of entertainment, may be a surprise to many—but it’s the culmination of a yearslong shift in habits.

“YouTube is taking over TV,” December 13, 2024

What makes this development really interesting is that — even though Google and Elon Musk seem to have very different political philosophies — they do agree on a basic principle of new social media. Musk says “Don’t hate the media, become the media” and Google says, broadcast yourself. The message is clear and it is not good news for legacy media:

But at a time when cord cutting is increasing—just 68.8 million people subscribe to a traditional pay TV service now, the lowest figures on record, according to MoffettNathanson—YouTube can capitalize on consumers seeking a cheaper alternative to traditional TV programming. Two of the fastest-growing areas of TV consumption in 2024 that YouTube predicts will continue into 2025 are sports and kids’ content. YouTube’s own data suggests that watch time on highlights and analysis of sports is up 30% year over year. Taking over TV”

Hollywood Reporter noted last month that “Next year will record the first-ever annual decline in global pay TV penetration, Ampere Analysis forecasts.”

Stokel-Walker has written a book on the topic, YouTubers: How YouTube Shook Up TV and Created a New Generation of Stars (Canbury Press, 2021).