‘This isn’t the old pre-roll world’: YouTube has been talking TV — now it’s selling that way

What stands out though is who YouTube is aiming these deals at. The pitch is landing squarely on TV advertisers – buyers used to making larger commitments in exchange for better access, sharper pricing and a more predictable schedule. Appropriately enough, YouTube has dubbed it the VIP (Video Incentives Program) program.

“The VIP program is really beneficial for clients because they can get credits, price advantages and tap into YouTube’s creators, who create custom content,” said Hermelinda Fernandez, svp, digital investment at Canvas Worldwide, adding that her clients want to buy YouTube this way. 

“Advertisers have the ability to try and create more of a TV schedule on the platform as well,” she added.

All of which underscores a long-running effort by YouTube to win over upfront buyers. It has learned to speak the language of TV – adopting its language, economics and buying mechanics – without ever fully shedding its creator-led DNA. That unresolved tension has fueled its growth, and it’s also why some buyers still hesitate. 

“Google is participating like an upfront partner, whereby advertisers only have access to certain creators if they are a VIP upfront brand,” Fernandez said. “They’re really acting like an NBC or a Disney by saying you can’t have access to certain creators unless you do a formal upfront.”

Another media buyer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they’re weighing a similar deal. And like the one presented to Fernandez and her team, it isn’t just about locking in YouTube spend. It’s designed to pull more CTV dollars into DV360, positioning Google’s demand-side platform less as a YouTube buying tool and more as a unified one for TV-style buying across YouTube, streaming TV and the open web. In effect, YouTube becomes an incentive. 

So much so that the VIP YouTube package presented to this buyer required prioritizing demand generation, Google online video and CTV and audio spending through DV360.

And these conversations aren’t limited to the biggest advertisers.

Collective Measures’ group director of performance media, Lauren Beerling confirmed that Google has been positioning YouTube as a bonafide alternative to CTV and TV for a while. 

As Digiday previously reported, with the exception of CTV-oriented strategies, advertisers previously viewed YouTube as a reach platform, rather than those specifically watching content on their TV screens. Still, YouTube wanted advertisers to better understand how they could treat CTV more than just another inventory source, while making it a bigger part of its portfolio. What’s unfolding now is the latest, and most explicit, version of that push. 

“They’re [Google] leaning on a few consistent pillars: the majority of YouTube watch time happens on TV and that the platform drives over 1 billion hours of watch time globally, everyday,” said Beerling. “They’ve [Google] also compared incremental reach to linear, emphasising that YouTube captures light or cord-cutting audiences linear can’t reach, as well as better measurement than traditional TV (think brand and conversion lift, YouTube CTV attribution, and growing MMM [media mix modelling] alignment).”

Go Fish is another agency that has sat in on similar talks. The company’s svp paid social, Logan Durant, said that Google’s general pitch is that when compared to linear, “YouTube is more measurable, more flexible with targeting and creative, and has a growing reach vs. linear TV’s shrinking reach”. 

Durant also referenced materials he’s received from Google, one being a direct table comparison called “Why advertisers prefer YouTube over linear TV” which directly compares “YouTube advantages” with “Linear TV limitation” across measurability, buying, targeting, optimization, creative, cost efficiency and audience reach.

“This isn’t the old pre-roll world,” Go Fish’s evp of Innovation Ethan Kramer said, talking about the features Google has been building to strengthen this pitch. “Pause-ads, longer unskippables, Creator Premieres, and Netflix-style UI updates are explicitly designed to feel familiar to traditional TV buyers while also native to viewers.”

The timing matters. In May, The Information reported on YouTube’s profitability, citing estimates from research firm MoffettNathanson that put YouTube’s operating income just under $8 billion in 2024, compared with $112 billion for Alphabet overall – roughly 7% of the total. 

That gap looks increasingly hard to ignore given YouTube’s dominance of attention. The platform says it drives more than a billion hours of watch time globally each day and Nielsen’s October tracker showed YouTube leading all streaming services in TV usage at 12.9%, ahead of Disney, Netflix and Amazon. 

“YouTube doesn’t want to be the biggest digital video platform,” Kramer said. “It clearly wants to compete with network TV, short form and social spend at the same time and so far they are extremely well positioned to capitalize.”

Google / YouTube declined Digiday’s request for comment.