Nearly one in five (18%) of YouTube users watch full-length movies and TV shows on the platform, according to research by Ampere Analysis.
The findings reveal that older audiences are driving a surge in long-form viewing.
YouTube’s film and TV audience skews older than its overall user base, with engagement peaking among 35-64-year-olds.
Households with children are another key driver of this viewing, suggesting that both parents and grandparents are increasingly tuning into YouTube for family viewing.
Ampere said that viewers of film and TV shows on YouTube are “content super-consumers”, engaging with more genres than the general online population.
The share of internet users watching films and TV shows on YouTube varies widely in the 29 markets in Ampere’s survey. It stands at 32% in India, 20% in Saudi Arabia, 15% in the US, 12% in the UK, and falls to its lowest in Sweden at 7%.
A range of factors influences YouTube viewing uptake in each market. In general, countries with fewer on-demand services and a weaker presence of broadcaster catch-up platforms see higher viewing of films and series on YouTube.
Brazil and Mexico stand out, said Ampere, offering attractive distribution opportunities for content owners. These markets not only have large audiences for films and series on YouTube but also report high levels of YouTube viewing on smart TVs, indicating a broad audience engaging with the platform to watch broadcast-style content in premium viewing environments.
According to Ampere Analysis’s latest global consumer tracker of 56,000 adults, 85% of internet users now watch YouTube each month,
Ed Ludlow, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis, said: “YouTube’s vast audience makes it an attractive partner for content owners seeking to monetise their catalogues and reach beyond their regular audience. But that same scale means viewing behaviours vary widely across demographic groups – it’s crucial that content owners understand who they’re really engaging when distributing content on the platform.”
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