YouTube streaming on TVs at 100 million hours a day

There’s a good chance that if you use your Apple TV daily you’re also using the YouTube app. A lot.

YouTube is now being watched over 100 million hours on living room TVs through devices like the Apple TV set-top box every single day, according to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The data reveals some interesting, changing viewing habits of people not on their computers and mobile devices, but on their televisions.

In the company’s third quarter 2017 earnings call Thursday, Pichai said viewing on TV is accounting for roughly 10 percent of all YouTube watch time.

“That’s up 70% in the past year alone,” he said.

With more than 1 billion hours of watch time across all devices, YouTube has more than 1.5 billion users watching an average of 60 minutes of videos every day. For comparison, the company streamed just 100 million hours per day to all devices in 2012.

“YouTube continues to see phenomenal growth,” said Pichai.

The demographics numbers of YouTube’s TV growth were not revealed by accident. Google is wanting to shine the light on its streaming video services at a time when it is promoting its YouTube TV service during the Major League Baseball World Series as the sole and exclusive partner.

YouTube TV is a live streaming TV service that began in April of this year and is currently available in 50 U.S. cities. The services offers 52 channels including many local NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates for a flat fee of $35 a month with no contract. Its main features include a Cloud-based DVR with no storage limits for up to nine months at no additional charge, and six accounts per household. It is not available as an app on Apple TV, but can be broadcast to televisions via Apple’s AirPlay wireless streaming feature on iOS devices using the iOS-based YouTube TV app.

“Given where we are, I’m really excited about the initial reception,” Pichai said about YouTube TV.

YouTube is also wanting to stake its claim in the growing market of original programming through its YouTube Red service, which is available through YouTube TV for an added fee, but is not available on Apple TV as a standalone app. Pichai emphasized the company is “on track to release over 40 original shows this year” and recently announced it had bought the rights for “Origin,” a Sci-Fi show from Left Bank Pictures, the production company behind Netflix’s “The Crown.”

The YouTube app is a free download through the Apple TV App Store and has been available since May 2016.