Ampere Highlights Traditional Content Gains on YouTube

Almost 40 percent of YouTube’s monthly active users globally are using the platform to watch more traditional TV and film content, including documentaries, according to Ampere Analysis.

Per Ampere, the most consumed content on YouTube in the last month has been music at 56 percent, followed by comedy and how-tos at 39 percent and 29 percent. The top five also includes documentaries, at 24 percent, and films and TV shows, at 23 percent. The audience profile for each of these two categories is distinct, Ampere notes, with 22 percent watching both, while 37 percent only watched TV and film, and 41 percent only watched docs. For both, the audience skews toward 35 to 44 and homes with families.

The Asia Pacific has shown a particular fondness for traditional content on YouTube—45 percent of monthly active users watched docs and TV/films—as has LatAm at 40 percent, with Western Europe at just 28 percent and North American in between at 37 percent.

Smart TV penetration is driving long-form consumption on YouTube, with Ampere noting that 34 percent of those who watched both documentaries and TV shows/films on YouTube in the past month used a smart TV for at least some of their viewing, versus 22 percent of YouTube users in general.

Daniel Monaghan, senior research manager at Ampere Analysis, said: “The behemoth that is YouTube, the most-watched online video platform globally, has come a long way since its early days of short, low-quality, user-generated pranks, memes and vlogs. Those types of content are still extremely popular, but we now see more full-length TV shows and movies uploaded from the leading studios, producers and broadcasters. On one hand, this risks cannibalizing some owned-and-operated audiences. On the other hand, the sheer scale and reach of YouTube mean the benefits of extending the addressable audience cannot be ignored, while also opening up new revenue streams via ad-share agreements with the platform. Documentaries and other TV shows and films sit within the top five video categories as surveyed by Ampere. We expect engagement to grow, especially as YouTube continues to establish itself more firmly in the viewer’s living room on smart TVs, beyond their phones and laptops.”