YouTube content made by independent creators draws more viewing sessions on television sets than content from Hollywood studios, but studio content holds viewers’ attention more effectively once they’re watching, according to a new study from measurement firm TVision.
The finding cuts against the assumption that YouTube’s lead over Netflix in U.S. viewing time is purely a Creator Economy story. TVision’s panel data shows a split screen: Studios win on attention and creators on volume.
The Volume Gap
Creator channels accounted for 62.5% of YouTube sessions watched on TV in TVision’s panel, comfortably outpacing studio channels. Studio content in the dataset spans a wide range: late-night show clips, movie trailers, and full series, which the report says dispels the assumption that YouTube viewing is almost entirely creator-driven. Even with that range, studio content still trails creators on sheer session count.
The Attention Gap
The volume advantage flips when TVision measures engagement. Studio content posted an attention-to-presence score of 57.2%, compared to 52.1% for creator content. The gap widens on attention-to-duration, a measure of how much of a video’s full playback time viewers actually spent looking at the screen: 34.6% for studio content versus 25.8% for creators. By both measures, viewers who choose studio programming on YouTube watch more of it, more closely, than viewers who choose creator content.
What’s Driving the Split
The report ties the attention gap to who seeks out each type of content. Viewers who navigate to studio programming on YouTube, rather than watching it on traditional TV, are more likely to be deliberate fans of that specific content. Creator content, by contrast, includes a large volume of broadly appealing, formulaic material from top creators that functions more like background viewing.
That pattern holds inside the creator category itself. Large creators – the report cites MrBeast as an example – generate more total viewing time and more co-viewing (multiple people watching together) than smaller creators, but score lower on attention. Niche creators produce fewer total views but command more engaged, solo viewing from dedicated fans. TVision’s data suggests the volume-versus-attention tradeoff that separates studios from creators also separates big creators from small ones.
Format Reinforces the Pattern
The volume-attention split lines up with a separate finding on video length. Tubular Labs has reported that 77% of YouTube views across all platforms come from videos under one minute, effectively Shorts. On TV screens, TVision found the reverse: Shorts accounted for just 16.8% of sessions, while mid-form (6 to 20 minutes) and long-form (21 to 60 minutes) content combined for 66.8%, split nearly evenly between the two. Viewers appear to reserve Shorts for mobile and use TV screens for longer programming, the format in which studio content and long-form creator content both operate.
Category Breakdown
Entertainment led all categories by session volume and also scored well on attention, 57.1% attention-to-presence, which TVision attributes to the category spanning both studio and creator content, from Netflix’s YouTube channel to creator-made series.
News and Politics posted the highest attention scores of any category, 66.7% attention-to-presence and 52.9% attention-to-duration, alongside one of the lowest co-viewing rates at 34.0%, pointing to solo, intent-driven viewing. Music ranked third by session volume but scored lowest on attention-to-presence, consistent with its use as background listening. Gaming had the highest co-viewing score, linked to family-friendly titles like Roblox, and Sports had the second-highest, with cited examples including an NFL livestream and NBA game highlights.
Attention Skews to the Extremes
TVision also compared YouTube attention patterns to traditional connected TV. YouTube viewing time clustered more heavily at both ends of the attention spectrum: 26.1% of YouTube time fell into the lowest-attention bucket versus 20.5% for traditional CTV, while 25.4% fell into the highest-attention bucket versus 23.5% for CTV. The report reads this as further evidence of YouTube’s dual function, serving as both background content and lean-in viewing, in a way that distinguishes it from traditional television.
Methodology Note: Figures are based on TVision panel data measuring attention-to-presence (time viewers were in the room and looking at the screen) and attention-to-duration (share of a video’s full runtime watched with eyes on screen). The 77% Shorts viewership figure is attributed to Tubular Labs, not TVision’s own panel.
Image credit: TVision The full report is available here
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
YouTube content made by independent creators draws more viewing sessions on television sets than content from Hollywood studios, but studio content holds viewers’ attention more effectively once they’re watching, according to a new study from measurement firm TVision.
The finding cuts against the assumption that YouTube’s lead over Netflix in U.S. viewing time is purely a Creator Economy story. TVision’s panel data shows a split screen: Studios win on attention and creators on volume.
The Volume Gap
Creator channels accounted for 62.5% of YouTube sessions watched on TV in TVision’s panel, comfortably outpacing studio channels. Studio content in the dataset spans a wide range: late-night show clips, movie trailers, and full series, which the report says dispels the assumption that YouTube viewing is almost entirely creator-driven. Even with that range, studio content still trails creators on sheer session count.
The Attention Gap
The volume advantage flips when TVision measures engagement. Studio content posted an attention-to-presence score of 57.2%, compared to 52.1% for creator content. The gap widens on attention-to-duration, a measure of how much of a video’s full playback time viewers actually spent looking at the screen: 34.6% for studio content versus 25.8% for creators. By both measures, viewers who choose studio programming on YouTube watch more of it, more closely, than viewers who choose creator content.
What’s Driving the Split
The report ties the attention gap to who seeks out each type of content. Viewers who navigate to studio programming on YouTube, rather than watching it on traditional TV, are more likely to be deliberate fans of that specific content. Creator content, by contrast, includes a large volume of broadly appealing, formulaic material from top creators that functions more like background viewing.
That pattern holds inside the creator category itself. Large creators – the report cites MrBeast as an example – generate more total viewing time and more co-viewing (multiple people watching together) than smaller creators, but score lower on attention. Niche creators produce fewer total views but command more engaged, solo viewing from dedicated fans. TVision’s data suggests the volume-versus-attention tradeoff that separates studios from creators also separates big creators from small ones.
Format Reinforces the Pattern
The volume-attention split lines up with a separate finding on video length. Tubular Labs has reported that 77% of YouTube views across all platforms come from videos under one minute, effectively Shorts. On TV screens, TVision found the reverse: Shorts accounted for just 16.8% of sessions, while mid-form (6 to 20 minutes) and long-form (21 to 60 minutes) content combined for 66.8%, split nearly evenly between the two. Viewers appear to reserve Shorts for mobile and use TV screens for longer programming, the format in which studio content and long-form creator content both operate.
Category Breakdown
Entertainment led all categories by session volume and also scored well on attention, 57.1% attention-to-presence, which TVision attributes to the category spanning both studio and creator content, from Netflix’s YouTube channel to creator-made series.
News and Politics posted the highest attention scores of any category, 66.7% attention-to-presence and 52.9% attention-to-duration, alongside one of the lowest co-viewing rates at 34.0%, pointing to solo, intent-driven viewing. Music ranked third by session volume but scored lowest on attention-to-presence, consistent with its use as background listening. Gaming had the highest co-viewing score, linked to family-friendly titles like Roblox, and Sports had the second-highest, with cited examples including an NFL livestream and NBA game highlights.
Attention Skews to the Extremes
TVision also compared YouTube attention patterns to traditional connected TV. YouTube viewing time clustered more heavily at both ends of the attention spectrum: 26.1% of YouTube time fell into the lowest-attention bucket versus 20.5% for traditional CTV, while 25.4% fell into the highest-attention bucket versus 23.5% for CTV. The report reads this as further evidence of YouTube’s dual function, serving as both background content and lean-in viewing, in a way that distinguishes it from traditional television.
Methodology Note: Figures are based on TVision panel data measuring attention-to-presence (time viewers were in the room and looking at the screen) and attention-to-duration (share of a video’s full runtime watched with eyes on screen). The 77% Shorts viewership figure is attributed to Tubular Labs, not TVision’s own panel.
Image credit: TVision
The full report is available here
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