YouTube

YouTube on Tuesday launched audio ads and dynamic music lineups as the number of logged-in viewers continues to rise. Audio ads, in beta, is the first advertising format on YouTube designed to connect brands with music fans in engaged and ambient listening on the site.

During its third quarter earnings call, Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet reported that YouTube TV subscribers had passed 3 million. That’s up from 2 million reported in February — despite a monthly price hike from $50 to $65 at the end of the third quarter, following its deal to carry legacy Viacom cable networks. The new number puts YouTube TV in second place among virtual vMVPDs, behind Hulu, with 3.4 million subscribers as of 2Q.

The growth of video streaming of all types is now an impetus for Nielsen to add new measurement for YouTube and YouTube TV when it comes to the video-site advertising inventory on connected TV platforms. YouTube’s streaming TV inventory will be measured in Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings and Total Ad Ratings.

YouTube has supplanted Facebook as the most popular social media platform for viewing sports highlights, according to a new survey from Ring Digital. The research firm surveyed 1,400 sports video highlights viewers in August and found that 53% of respondents use YouTube for sports highlights on a regular basis, compared to 45% of respondents who said they use Facebook regularly.

A new Pew Research Center study finds that YouTube has become an important source of news for many Americans. About a quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) say they get news on YouTube. And while relatively few of these people say it is their primary news source, most say it is an important way they stay informed.

Facebook and other competitors host the same videos, but engineers have made changes that effectively preference YouTube — owned by Google — over other video sources. Wall Street Journal tests show YouTube usually ends up first and takes most of the slots in Google Search video carousels and prime results real estate.

Google’s YouTube has banned several white supremacist channels. Those banned include some of the net’s most high-profile far-right commentators, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; Canadian white nationalist activists/conspiracy theorist Stefan Molyneux; and U.S. white supremacist Richard Spencer, said to have coined the term “alt right.”

YouTube delivered its ninth annual NewFronts presentation to digital ad buyers, in a shorter, online format it dubbed “Brandcast Delivered.” Video presentations were customized to viewers’ interests, with on-camera participants in the heavily edited pitch including Lilly Singh, Josh Gad, Alex Rodriguez, Lyor Cohen and Mark Ronson, along with senior executives.

YouTube is experimenting with new ways to make video ads actionable, drive leads to increase performance, and automate content delivery across the platform. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned YouTube’s direct-response business during the company’s 1Q earnings call in April, saying it has been a profitable focus for the company. Advertisers requested the support.

YouTube brought in $4.04 billion during the first quarter, marking an increase of 33% from the 1Q 2019, according to parent company Alphabet, which reported its first quarter earnings on Tuesday afternoon. Overall, YouTube accounted for nearly 10% of Alphabet’s $41.16 billion in 1Q sales. (Alphabet is also the parent company of Google.) YouTube’s $4.04 billion in 1Q sales falls a bit short of where it was at during the last quarter of 2019, when it reported $4.72 billion in revenue.

Google wants to substantially limit the information a key auditor of YouTube can share about the risks of advertising on the video service, according to people familiar with the situation, highlighting tensions between the tech giant and Madison Avenue.

Lester Holt is discussing hard news with a softer touch. The NBC Nightly News anchor is leading an experimental version of NBC’s flagship newscast aimed specifically at children and teens. The first edition of Nightly News Kids Edition streamed Wednesday evening on YouTube and the show, viewed as a test within NBC News, is likely to appear at least twice per week and potentially with greater frequency.

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah got inventive as it tries to navigate the television production shutdown brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Following the example of other latenight shows that have broadcast segments produced remotely, on Wednesday, The Daily Show‘s YouTube channel posted a video introducing the The Daily Social Distancing Show.

The president’s campaign has secured one of the most high-profile spots on the internet. The campaign has purchased the YouTube website’s masthead on Nov. 3 nationwide. Details weren’t provided, but the cost is estimated from hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $1 million a day.

The Google-owned video giant is considering giving people the ability to sign up, through YouTube, for a wide range of subscription-streaming services run by entertainment companies, according to people familiar with the situation. YouTube has talked with several entertainment companies about adding their services, the people said.

For the first time, Google on Monday revealed just how big of an advertising machine YouTube is. The company said that YouTube generated $15.1 billion in ad revenue in fiscal 2019, including $4.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

Last May, YouTube made a major shift with its original programming strategy, putting all of its original shows free in front of its paywall and streaming them with advertising. Less than a year later, the platform has plans to double its original output this year while continuing to offer both ad-supported (free) and ad-free (subscription) options.

YouTube will soon limit the data it collects on videos designed for children to comply with a federal privacy clampdown, pleasing consumer advocates but delivering a potential financial blow to creators of free kids’ content.

Google will impose some new curbs on ads surrounding child-oriented videos that appear on the main YouTube.com site, but will continue to allow influencer marketing and product placement on the main site.

YouTube is stepping up efforts to snag political ads from local TV and Facebook and letting buyers book slots through the end of February, when voting for the presidential nominations will begin in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere.