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YouTube users are watching sports on the streaming platform in rapidly growing numbers, according to its chief executive, as more people switch from smartphones to televisions to view online video.
Speaking to the Financial Times on the sidelines of the Olympic Games in Paris, Neal Mohan said more than 35bn hours of sports content was viewed on YouTube in the past year, marking a 45 per cent increase on the previous year.
Much of that, he said, was due to viewers embracing a more traditional TV experience to watch the online video app.
“We’ve seen the growth of YouTube being watched, being consumed on television screens. It’s not just the largest screen in the house, it’s our fastest-growing screen,” said Mohan, who took over as YouTube chief last year. “It’s not surprising because if you put yourself in the shoes of a consumer or a sports fan . . . that’s a great screen to actually consume that sort of content.”
YouTube, part of Google parent Alphabet, is not an official partner of the International Olympic Committee. However, it has deals with some of the biggest Olympics broadcasters, including NBCUniversal in the US and Warner Bros Discovery’s Eurosport in Europe, to carry highlights from Paris 2024.
The platform is also working with influencers to offer behind-the-scenes Olympics footage and other “shoulder content” from on the ground in Paris. In Latin America, YouTube is live-streaming some sports in collaboration with Brazilian influencer Casimiro and Mexican broadcaster Claro Sports, offering viewers the option of watching four events simultaneously on one screen.
Last year YouTube began showing live NFL matches, through a seven-year contract worth $14bn to carry the league’s Sunday Ticket supplement across the US. Since then the platform has also signed deals with two sports competitions hoping to broaden their reach: the Women’s Super League, the top tier of professional women’s football in England, and F1 Academy, a new motorsport series for female racing drivers.
“In this world where viewership is so fragmented, and viewers have infinite choices in terms of how we consume the content on our mobile phones . . . one of the things that I actually think brings people together and creates that collective experience is sports, live sports in particular, and we see that on YouTube as well,” said Mohan.
Streaming platforms have been pushing into sport globally, although the pace varies between rival companies. Amazon has deals to show the Uefa Champions League, the NFL, the French Open tennis tournament and recently agreed to carry the NBA beginning next year. AppleTV+ carries live Major League Baseball matches in the US and has global rights to Major League Soccer, while Netflix recently made its first foray into mainstream live sports by agreeing to show two NFL games on Christmas Day.
YouTube said last week that views on connected TVs have increased more than 130 per cent in the past three years, with watch time for sports on those devices growing by 30 per cent year on year.
Alphabet’s latest earnings report revealed YouTube advertising revenue of $8.7bn in the second quarter. That figure was up 13 per cent on the year before but lower than analyst expectations of $8.9bn, as YouTube faced a growing challenge from rival video app TikTok in its traditional mainstay of short-form video clips.
Hundreds of billions of hours of content are watched on YouTube every year, according to the company, making sports a relatively small portion of the total. But in the face of increasing competition in streaming, Mohan said YouTube’s presence in sport was likely to grow considerably in the near future.
“To use a sports analogy, we’re in the early innings really,” he said. “We have been working in close partnership with leagues all over the world, with our broadcast partners, our media partners all over the world for many, many years. But I would say that despite that, we’re still in the very, very, early days of where this can evolve.”
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