YouTube Music and Premium passes 100m subs milestone

YouTube Music and Premium have crossed the milestone of 100 million subscribers, including trialists, according to the Alphabet-owned video site.

In a blog posting to mark the occasion, Adam Smith, VP of product management at YouTube highlighted the innovations the company has introduced over the past year, including the ability to continue watching YouTube across different devices like smart TVs and tablets and the introduction of an enhanced version of 1080p HD.

The company has also experimented with generative AI features and a radio building experience and podcasts on YouTube Music.

For Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet, which announced Q4 results this week, CEO Sundar Pichai said that subscription revenue had reached US$15 billion annually, up five times since 2019.

“Subscriptions is growing strongly, powered by YouTube Premium and Music, YouTube TV and Google One,” he said.

Pichai said that YouTube is the key driver of subscriptions, and that YouTube Music and Premium “have real momentum”.

Sundar Pichai

He said that “YouTube TV is also doing well”, highlighting in particular the success of Sunday Ticket American football in the US.

Philipp Schindler, SVP and CBO, Google said that YouTube had experienced strong growth in watch time on connected TV and with Shorts, which he said was “a top priority”. He said that Shorts had two million logged in users each month and 70 billion daily views.

Answering an analyst question, Schindler said that “NFL Sunday Ticket supports our long-term strategy and really helps solidify YouTube’s position as a must-have app on everyone’s TV set”.

He declined to reveal subscriber numbers for Sunday Ticket but said that the company had seen “ solid demand across the ad market around our YouTube Sunday Ticket offering”.

YouTube ads generated US$9.2 billion in Q4, up from US$8 billion in 2022. Google advertising total revenues were US$65.5 billion, up from US$59 billion. Alphabet’s total revenues amounted to US$86.3 billion, up from US$76 billion.