YouTube viewers are watching more than 2 billion hours of Shorts on television sets each month, the company announced in May 2026 — a notable shift for a short-form video format originally designed for mobile screens.
YouTube’s Senior Director of Product Management for YouTube on TV, Kurt Wilms, described the living room as the platform’s “fastest-growing screen.” U.S. viewers alone are watching over 200 million hours of YouTube content daily, and Shorts — clips that run up to three minutes — are appearing in TV search results, meaning users may encounter them even without actively seeking them out.
To accommodate vertical video on wider displays, YouTube has updated the TV viewing experience to show comments alongside the video, making use of the extra screen space. Google TV, a platform from YouTube’s parent company Alphabet, has also added a “Short videos for you” row to its feed, a move intended to further increase watch time.
“By tailoring Shorts for the big screen, we unlocked a more immersive way for fans to engage with their favorite content while also creating a massive new stage for creators to reach global audiences and scale their businesses,” said Sarah Ali, VP of Product Management for YouTube Shorts.
The living-room viewing trend extends beyond short-form video. YouTube reports that viewers watched over 700 million hours of podcasts per month on living room devices in 2025, up from 400 million per month in 2024. Netflix has also invested in video podcasts, signing deals with iHeartMedia, Barstool Sports, Spotify, and other studios for exclusive video rights to certain shows.
The data suggests audiences are increasingly willing to watch content on their largest home screen regardless of the format it was originally designed for — a shift that could have implications for how creators and platforms approach distribution.
Source: TechCrunch