YouTube sees 2 billion hours of Shorts watched on TVs monthly

Short-form video, a format traditionally designed for mobile devices, is finding a significant audience on television screens. According to YouTube, viewers watch over 2 billion hours of YouTube Shorts—the platform’s video clips that run up to three minutes—on television screens each month. “The living room is YouTube’s fastest-growing screen, and the Shorts experience is further helping connect viewers with the world’s most active creator community from the comfort of their couch,” said Kurt Wilms, YouTube’s senior director of product management for YouTube on TV. Wilms noted that audiences increasingly want to watch their favorite content on the largest screen in the home, whether that content is long-form videos, podcasts, or short-form clips.

To accommodate this shift in user behavior, YouTube has updated its television interface. Because vertical videos leave unused screen space on widescreen televisions, the platform now displays user comments alongside the video. Additionally, Google TV, a streaming platform owned by YouTube’s parent company Alphabet, introduced a “Short videos for you” row on its feed to encourage further viewing. This expansion comes as overall television-based consumption remains high; in the U.S., viewers watch over 200 million hours of YouTube content daily. Sarah Ali, the VP of product management for YouTube Shorts, explained that tailoring the short-form format for television screens has unlocked an immersive way for fans to engage with content, while also creating a stage for creators to reach global audiences and scale their businesses.

This shift toward television-based consumption is also affecting podcasts, which are traditionally audio-first media. YouTube reported an increase in the monthly hours of podcasts watched on television-based devices:

• In 2024, viewers watched 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on these devices.
• In 2025, that figure grew to over 700 million hours of podcasts watched monthly.

This growth places YouTube in closer competition with traditional streaming services like Netflix, which has also invested in video podcasts. Netflix has secured video rights for certain shows through partnerships with companies including iHeartMedia, Barstool Sports, and Spotify.

Why it matters

YouTube is optimizing its television interface to capture the growing trend of users consuming short-form video and podcasts on home television screens. This shift challenges traditional media consumption patterns by bringing formats originally designed for mobile devices and audio platforms into the living room.