ITV Studios and Welsh broadcaster S4C joined the billions of younger viewers flocking to YouTube this week, yet a sizeable minority within the industry continue to see it as a lesser form of TV. Quintus Studios chief Gerrit Kemming argues now is the time to embrace a digital-first approach.
Over the last year, media commentator Evan Shapiro has been warning the TV business about the challenge represented by YouTube.
At MIPCOM, he pointed out that the Google-owned content sharing platform dwarfs the FAST business – currently the focus of so much frenzied attention. More recently, he used a Royal Television Society debate to call YouTube “an existential threat” to the legacy TV business.
Key to Shapiro’s thesis is that YouTube’s share of big screen viewing is growing rapidly thanks to the increased penetration of connected TV sets (the same phenomenon driving FAST).
