Podcasts power YouTube’s CTV push with 75% surge in viewing

New Delhi: Podcasts are emerging as one of YouTube’s fastest-growing content formats, underscoring how creator-led media consumption is reshaping Alphabet’s growth story. In Alphabet’s Q4 2025 earnings call, the company positioned podcasts not as a side format, but as a core driver of viewing time, particularly on connected TVs, placing YouTube at the centre of how long-form audio-video content is consumed globally.

“To illustrate YouTube’s popularity, in October 2025, viewers watched over 700 million hours of podcasts on living room devices, up 75% from just a year prior,” the company said during the earnings call.

During the earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai and Philipp Schindler, Google’s President of Global Business and Services, were present.

The surge in podcast viewing also ties directly into YouTube’s strength as a streaming platform. Alphabet reiterated its leadership position in the connected TV space, reinforcing why long-form formats like podcasts are finding a natural home on the platform.

“In the living room, YouTube continues to be the number 1 streamer in the US for nearly 3 years. According to Nielsen, from the NFL to Coachella, YouTube is where people watch today’s biggest popular culture moments unfold,” the company said.

As podcasts evolve from background audio to appointment viewing, YouTube’s dominance on the big screen gives it a structural advantage over pure audio platforms. Podcasts, once consumed on commutes or headphones, are now being watched like talk shows, interviews, and cultural conversations, often lasting well over an hour.

Creators sit at the centre of YouTube’s podcast push.  The company linked growth directly to the creator ecosystem, stressing the depth and diversity of content produced on YouTube. “YouTube creators are providing an unmatched breadth of content. Our investment in AI innovation across creativity, viewing experience, and monetization continues to pay off,” the company said.

Technology, particularly AI, is playing a growing role in accelerating creator output and audience engagement across podcasts and other long-form formats. Alphabet outlined how its AI tools are already being adopted at scale by creators on YouTube. 

“AI is transforming the YouTube experience for both creators and viewers. On average, every day in December, over 1 million channels used our new AI creation tools to supercharge their creativity. During that same month, more than 20 million viewers used our new Ask tool, powered by Gemini, to learn more about the content they watched,” the company said.

Alphabet framed podcast growth not as an isolated trend but as part of a larger creator-driven content engine. “YouTube creators are providing an unmatched breadth of content,” the company reiterated.