Too Much TV: Repeat After Me - YouTube Is Not The Same As Streaming TV

In the case of YouTube, the word "watching" is doing a lot of work

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, July 16th 2025:

YOUTUBE IS NOT NETFLIX (OR TUBI, OR ANY OTHER SVOD OR AVOD)
Earlier this week, Nielsen released it's Gauge data for June, which among other things, tracks the monthly TV viewing by platform. This latest data showed YouTube increasing its percentage of the audience to 12.8%, with Netflix trailing in the second position with 8.3%. These results sparked a series of hot takes on entertainment news sites, arguing YouTube has become the leading destination for TV viewers, and rivals such as Netflix or Disney will never be able to catch up.

Except, that's not really the story.

First of all, comparing what YouTube does to the business model of a typical SVOD or AVOD is a bit like comparing the popularity of motorcycles to that of 12-passenger vans. Yes, they're both in the transportation business, but they do two entirely different things. Yes, YouTube does have some traditional TV-like content, but most of what people watch on their televisions is anything but traditional entertainment. It's not even necessarily user-generated content.

Which brings me to my second point. The Gauge measures the percentage of time viewers are watching YouTube on their televisions. And in this case, the term "watching" is very loosely applied.

Let me give you one example from my own household. If Nielsen measured my teenage son's daily YouTube TV "watching," it would likely hit the 10-12 hour range. But the bulk of that comes from the fact that he goes to sleep every night to one of the numerous YouTube channels that post 10-hour long videos that consist of nothing but some stills of sexy anime women, accompanied by some soft piano music. Is he technically "watching" YouTube? Sure, but I don't think that is really engagement.

I know a few people who fall asleep every night to YouTube channels that post long videos of a black screen accompanied by the sound of falling rain. These channels receive millions of views. But is it really "watching?"

And then there is all of the copyrighted material that is illegally posted on YouTube for monetization. If I wanted to license the three season run of Millennium for use on a traditional streaming service, the licensing would likely cost several million dollars. But someone can post the episodes on YouTube without permission, and the only thing that will happen is that perhaps the studio will file a complaint with YouTube, which will then direct the advertising revenue to the studio in a backdoor licensing scheme. And then there are the hundreds of thousands of unlicensed music tracks.

Yes, the market for legitimate content on YouTube is growing and studios have begun posting full-length movies and television shows on the platform so they can monetize it. But that is still a small percentage of what people are watching on YouTube.

How small? From what I can tell, no one knows. I've looked around trying to find some data that tracks what types of content people watch on YouTube and so far I haven't found any data I trust.

All of this comes around to my original point. Yes, it's worth keeping YouTube in mind when you're talking about viewer engagement. But it's not in the same business as anyone else. And conflating YouTube with the traditional streaming television market is only going to lead to people making some misguided predictions about where the industry is headed.

THE DEATH OF THE JUNKET
For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, press junkets are when the stars of a TV show or movie are put in a hotel room (or increasingly, on a Zoom call), and entertainment reporters then get a small 4 or 5-minute window to speak with them. The stars can speak to 30 or 40 people back-to-back and the results are almost always what you would expect.

The stars hear the same questions all day, reporters try to maximize the impact of their small window by asking odd questions they hope will elicit a response that makes some news. All of which results in a bunch of annoyed stars and frustrated journalists.

The Guardian's Stuart Heritage has a piece today on the death of the movie industry junket, and it's a pretty solid representation of where movie publicity is headed:

The ones going viral at the moment show Corenswet’s undying, encyclopedic love of the Star Wars prequels. One of them, the one that has gained the real traction, sees him passionately argue that Anakin Skywalker would have had a profoundly different fate had he been trained by Qui-Gon Jinn and not Obi-Wan Kenobi. His argument is calm and fluid and eloquent. Most importantly, it shows a deep understanding of the worst films of an overcooked franchise. In other words, it’s the perfect demonstration of why he should be Superman.

This isn’t an isolated incident, either. Much of the press for Jurassic World: Rebirth has revolved around the odd platonic showmance between Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey. In fact, watch any social clip of them gazing into each other’s eyes and giggling and it’s clear that they’re taking the lead from Wicked’s promotional cycle, which was fuelled by the social-driven narrative of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo variously crying, clinging to each other or talking in weird little baby voices.

Some of these changes are driven by the rise of social media. But it's also driven by overly protective personal publicists, whose primary job is to make sure their clients don't make news by talking about anything other than their current project. And I get it. In today's hyper-aggregated entertainment news environment, the slightest misstep can dominate a week's worth of news cycles.

But as a journalist, it's a terrible development. I'm not interested in talking to someone just so we can play some goofy game and pretend as if we're just a couple of buds hanging out. I want to have an actual extended conversation. And an advantage of working for myself is that I can say no. There's no editor demanding I extract some snappy quote for an actor on an upcoming series. Unless it's an extraordinary circumstance, I don't like to do interviews unless I can get at least 12-15 minutes. Or more, if possible. I'll take an ensemble actor over a star if it provides me with the chance to actually talk to them. I think it's a better experience for the person I'm interviewing, as well as the readers.

I also understand that is often not possible. When 200 reporters want an interview, triage must be done by the publicists. However, I am finding that in a growing number of cases, people I have previously interviewed ask for me to interview them for their next project. Which is a nice compliment.

THE 2025 ESPY AWARD WINNERS
The 2025 ESPY Awards just wrapped up a couple of hours ago in Los Angeles and here is the rundown of winners:

Best Athlete – Men’s Sports
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Oklahoma City Thunder‬

Best Athlete – Women’s Sports
‭Simone Biles – Gymnast‬

Best Breakthrough Athlete
Ilona Maher – Rugby‬

Best Record-Breaking Performance
Alexander Ovechkin – Washington Capitals

Best Championship Performance
‭Simone Biles – 2024 Olympics Women’s All-Around‬

Best Comeback Athlete
Suni Lee – Gymnast‬

Best Play
‭Saquon Barkley’s backwards hurdle‬‭ – NFL (11/3/24)‬

Best Team
Philadelphia Eagles – NFL‬

Best College Athlete – Men’s Sports ‭
Cooper Flagg – Duke Basketball‬

Best College Athlete – Women’s Sports
JuJu Watkins – USC Basketball‬‭

Best Athlete with a Disability
‭Noah Elliott – Snowboard‬

Best NFL Player
Saquon Barkley – Philadelphia Eagles‬

Best MLB Player
Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Dodgers‬

Best Soccer Player
Christian Pulisic – AC Milan, US‬

Best Golfer
Scottie Scheffler‬

Best Tennis Player
Coco Gauff‬

Best NHL Player
‭Leon Draisaitl – Edmonton Oilers

Best NBA Player
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Oklahoma City Thunder‬

Best WNBA Player
Caitlin Clark – Indiana Fever‬

Best Driver
Max Verstappen – F1‬

Best UFC Fighter
Merab Dvalishvili

Best Boxer
Katie Taylor‬

ODDS AND SODS
* Us Weekly is reporting that HGTV has canceled both Christina On The Coast as well The Flipping El Moussas. This means the network has now canceled at least six veteran shows in the past several months, which certainly feels like a serious cutback in original programming. I never thought HGTV would be become a zombie network, but it certainly feels as if it's headed in that direction.

* The Walking Dead: Dead City has been renewed for a third season with Sean Hoffman joining as showrunner.

* FX has ordered the series Cry Wolf, starring and executive produced by Olivia Colman and Brie Larson. Inspired by the Danish series Ulven Kommer (Cry Wolf) by Maja Jul Larsen, the series is described as "a psychological family thriller following a social worker (Colman) and a mother (Larson) thrust into crisis when the mother’s teenage daughter alleges abuse, pushing both women to their limits as they navigate an impossible situation."

* The CW has renewed Sullivan's Crossing for a fourth season, helped in part by a secondary window picked up by Netflix, where it is currently one of that streamer's most-watched TV series.

* Netflix has ordered American and European versions of the competitive reality series Physical: 100.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

THURSDAY, JULY 17TH:
* Catalog Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Community Squad (Netflix)
* DeExtention (Curiosity Stream)
* Family Recipe Showdown Series Premiere (Food)
* Homicide Squad: New Orleans Season Premiere (A&E)
* Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Three Premiere (Paramount+)
* Surf Girls (Prime Video)
* The Furry Detectives: Unmasking A Monster (Sundance)
* The Vince Staples Show (Netflix)
* Untamed (Netflix)

FRIDAY, JULY 18TH:
* Almost Family (Netflix)
* Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO)
* Delirium (Netflix)
* Follow [Juegos de Seducción] (Prime Video)
* I'm Still A Superstar (Netflix)
* My Lottery Dream Home Season Premiere (HGTV)
* Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical (Apple TV+)
* Superstar (Netflix)
* The Fixer Series Premiere (Fox)
* Vir Das: Fool Volume (Netflix)
* Wall To Wall (Netflix)
* What Hides In Silence (LMN)
* Would I Lie To You? Season Premiere (BritBox)
* Zarna Garg: Practical People Win (Hulu)
* Zillow Gone Wild Season Premiere (HGTV)

SEE YOU ON THURSDAY!