According to a study by Frank N. Magid Associates, most internet users visit YouTube instead of Amazon.com, Hulu or even Netflix to find episodes of popular TV shows.
Among the 2400 consumers who took this part in this study, 38% of them claimed to go to YouTube in comparison to the 33% visiting Netflix, Hulu at 17% and 14% to Amazon Prime Instant Video.
However, experts doubt that this can be true since YouTube doesn’t offer programming that is comparable to other SVOD services. Not unless the definition of a TV show is not the conventional one.
What this means is that it could include clips from Jimmy Kimmel Live to a digital series titled Video Game High School.
In the United States, YouTube offers full season of popular shows like the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Vampire Diaries and Sons of Anarchy. However, it seems improbable that it would draw such a large number of visitors – especially since it is a site whose main attraction is free video clips.
Magid president throws light on this by saying that there are tons of TV shows whether recent, older, some foreign and even full compilations as well.
And so it seems likely that people watching television shows on YouTube are more likely to be watching clips instead of full shows.
This “TV-related content” category has been booming for a few years now but without a further breakdown of data, it’s still a stretch to say that YouTube attracts the largest viewership for TV shows.