European Broadcasters' balancing strategies between BVOD, FAST, and YouTube

The Shifting Landscape of Broadcasting For many years now, Western European broadcasters have faced the challenge of balancing their presence across multiple digital platforms. The rise of YouTube as a dominant video-sharing platform over the last decade has forced them to adopt new strategies. However, while YouTube offers enormous potential in terms of audience reach and brand visibility, broadcasters are generally prioritising their proprietary platforms - BVOD (Broadcast Video on Demand) and FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) - as illustrated by recent relaunches of BVOD platforms in the last years: TF1+ and M6+ in France, ORF ON in Austria, ITVX or U in the UK, RTL+ in Germany ... YouTube has an unrivalled ability to reach mass audiences in the digital video world, with 2.6 billion users globally, making it a tempting space for broadcasters to engage with new viewers. YouTube is the first Ad-supported OTT platform in terms of users in each Western European country and while the BVOD platforms presented in the graph below have between 9 and 31 million users, YouTube reaches between 38 and 61 million MAUs in the five biggest European video markets. Furthermore, YouTube alone captured on average more total video viewing time in the top five European markets than BVODs. On average, YouTube is watched 4 minutes more daily than local BVOD services across Europe's top 5 markets, and this gap widens to 10 minutes when looking at younger cohorts (15-25 years old). Alphabet’s video-sharing platform can therefore represent an opportunity for broadcasters to increase their reach, especially among younger people.  However, despite this potential, broadcasters don’t seem to have invested massively in the platform - which is still dominated by digital content creators, gaming, and famous music labels.  YouTube's Paradoxical Role for Broadcasters Despite the opportunities it offers in terms of reach, the relationship between YouTube and broadcasters can best be described as a paradox - one oscillating between partnership and competition. YouTube provides broadcasters with a valuable tool for reaching large audiences, yet the ultimate objective is often to use YouTube as a funnel to drive users toward their proprietary platforms. This dynamic allows broadcasters to leverage YouTube's vast reach without fully committing to making it their primary destination for content. Broadcasters have however multiplied YouTube channels in the last year as can be seen on the left, understanding the value of a strong presence on YouTube. Beginning of 2024, a little bit more than 1,200 YouTube channels were edited by broadcasters in Europe, a figure that rose to almost 1,600 by September 2024.  Those channels often present shorter format videos than what can be seen on linear TV or BVOD platforms. Taking the example of British Broadcasters, we see that...