Youtube? The TV channel killer?

YouTube has emerged rapidly in the last decade, making it one of the most visited websites on the internet. Most people nowadays, if not all will use it on a daily basis for entertainment, music, or even watching something informative. It has become so important in our lives to the point in which we use it more than our TV channels. Therefore, is YouTube going to be a safe place for advertisers to take over TV? Will advertisers ever have the guts to fully abandon TV or Radio and just focus an entire advertisement campaign solely on YouTube?

Furthermore, I personally think it is not a great idea for advertisers to leave TV and only advertise on YouTube because of two reasons:

1. Even if TV is not watched by people as it used to be, there are still some people from different age groups who prefer to watch TV anyway and they do not rely on or depend on YouTube much. In other words, they only consider it as an entertainment tool

2. Since YouTube is making a lot of money, they can make a new feature anytime in which people can subscribe by paying money to avoid ads. This reason specifically would make advertisers lose a lot of money overnight if YouTube ever decides to implement it.

Moreover, according to the “YouTube for Brands” case study, in 2014 Susan Wojcicki the new YouTube CEO was considering offering an option to let their consumers watch ad-free videos once they pay for a subscription.

In addition, according to Hootsuite Blog, “76% of people report that they automatically skip ads, some advertisers choose to run pre-roll or mid-roll ads that don’t have a skip button at all. When you’re aiming for a wide lift in brand awareness, and you’re confident that your creative is strong enough to hold your audience’s attention for the full 15 seconds.”(Cooper,2020). This concludes that even if advertisers chose to fully move to YouTube; there is a high chance that their advertisements will not gain enough exposure like they hoped.

Figure 1: YouTube is working on a paid subscription service called Unplugged. (Bloomberg, 2016)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/05/05/youtube-planning-unplugged-online-tv-service-for-2017/amp/

The Complete Guide to YouTube Ads for Marketers

Reference:

1. Bloomberg. “YouTube Wants to Replace Your TV by 2017.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 28 June 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/05/05/youtube-planning-unplugged-online-tv-service-for-2017/amp/.
2. Cooper, P. (2020, July 20). The Complete Guide to YouTube Ads for Marketers. Retrieved October 10, 2020, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-advertising/