Is YouTube TV? Even a few years ago, that question would’ve received ridicule in some advertising circles. It still might. But now that YouTube has become the streaming service people spend the most time watching on TV screens, it’s becoming hard to argue that YouTube isn’t TV.
This question of YouTube’s place in the TV advertising discussion was a top talking point among agency executives throughout Digiday’s recent video series, “The Future of TV.” As covered in the video below, the executives’ answer is largely “yes, YouTube is TV,” especially now that it’s starting to sell ads against TV’s most premium programming: NFL games.
“They’re a TV company. They just spent on NFL Sunday Ticket. They’re introducing non-skippable 30[-second ads] across the entire YouTube family. So they’re in the TV game,” said Kelly Metz, managing director of advanced TV activation at Omnicom Media Group.
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