At StreamTV Live, Wurl’s Dave Bernath breaks down how YouTube has quietly become the dominant force on connected TVs—and what that means for advertisers. Once perceived as a mobile-first platform, YouTube now counts TV as its largest U.S. viewing device. And the most surprising part? It’s not just Gen Z. The platform’s fastest-growing demo is 65+, with most long-form viewing happening on television.
For content owners and ad-supported streamers, that shift is seismic. As Bernath explains, YouTube’s massive inventory—backed by Google’s ad infrastructure—is drawing viewer attention away from traditional AVOD and FAST players. Platforms like Roku and Samsung are now competing with YouTube not just online, but in the living room. And as Amazon and others flood the space with even more inventory, the battle for ad dollars intensifies.
So how do competitors stay relevant? Bernath suggests short-form video is key. He points to recent innovations like Tubi’s scene previews, which help viewers quickly find content to watch, as a blueprint for driving engagement. By adopting more mobile-inspired, snackable formats, traditional streamers can improve discoverability and replicate some of the lean-back magic that’s fueling YouTube’s growth on the big screen.
Daniel Frankel:
Hi, welcome to StreamTV Live. I'm Daniel Frankel, co-founder and publisher of Next TMT. With me today is Dave Bernath, general manager of Americas for technology company, Wurl. Dave, how are you?
Dave Bernath:
I'm good, man. Good.
Daniel Frankel:
Been a long time. I played basketball back in the day with Dave. Pissed me off. Had one of the best mid-range shots you'll ever see.
Dave, you're here at the show talking about a range of things, but one of the things I thought was really interesting was YouTube. We all know that it's a connective TV power. We've talked about it ad nauseum at this point, but how do we respond to that? It has changed the game.
Dave Bernath:
Yeah. No, it's true. There's been a lot of coverage about YouTube's growth in the last four or five months. I feel like it's become a lot hotter topic in the last few months than it was.
Daniel Frankel:
It has.
Dave Bernath:
Even though they were leading streaming even back in 2024, I feel like everyone's kind of [inaudible 00:01:04] up to the lever of their viewership. And the other thing that came out from New Chamber in February was that TV is actually their largest consumption platform in the US for watch [inaudible 00:01:17], which is kind of like wow. More than [inaudible 00:01:20]. So it was a bit of a reckoning on trying to kind of understand what it means for YouTube to be so successful on television.
Daniel Frankel:
What happened? I mean, it was a short form mobile proposition for so long, at least we perceived it as that. Then it seems like all of a sudden it has become mainstream lean back entertainment. Did the content change, or did the audience change, what was the ...
Dave Bernath:
Well, I think backing up a little bit, it was always there. Talk to the people that sell TVs or make TVs, who run the big operating systems, they'll say the two apps that you have to have are Netflix and YouTube. So they've been fortunate to be there [inaudible 00:02:00] on it. I don't think their content strategy really changed. I think tomorrow when I give my keynote, I will share some new research that shows that a lot of older people are watching them, and there's still a lot of short-form viewership, but there's a lot of long-form viewership happening as well. So people are watching longer content, much more on television on YouTube than they do on their phones and on the web. So I think it's just kind of a slow [inaudible 00:02:31].
Daniel Frankel:
Right. Is it the audience that consumed it because they didn't have control over the TV when they were teenagers? Now they do. They own the home.
Dave Bernath:
Yeah, I don't know. I don't have that level of knowledge. I think to me, what's interesting is that I think YouTube published it lately, is that the 65 plus has been the fastest growing demo.
Daniel Frankel:
Oh, that's interesting.
Dave Bernath:
So I think I would expect a lot of young people to be watching YouTube on TV. And they are, but from an indexing standpoint, it's actually the 35 plus crowd where television is their primary device for YouTube, which just kind of shows you that it's not a young person thing. It's not necessarily only a short-form thing. It's kind of [inaudible 00:03:17] demos and television.
Daniel Frankel:
Right. For those who don't know, Wurl specializes a connected TV advertising. I have to ask you, Dave, this obviously impacts your clients. You said we have a big ad supported behemoth entering the market, growing fast. What are the biggest changes there?
Dave Bernath:
Well, I think there's a lot of struggles to fill the avails in Fast and ABOD these days. It's just a lot of eyeballs that consumers are watching like crazy. The assumptions are really high. Amazon got into the game of free ad-supported probably this year, so that also more avails into their market, more inventory. And I think YouTube was obviously Google, giant company, as they pull people in increasingly, that's market share that Samsung, or Roku, [inaudible 00:04:11] channel, an AMC, an AMU are fighting YouTube now on television for your attention, my attention.
Daniel Frankel:
Yes.
Dave Bernath:
[inaudible 00:04:20] dollar. So it's definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Daniel Frankel:
So it's a lot of new inventory on the market. What can your constituency do to compete with that?
Dave Bernath:
Yeah. Good question. I think definitely figuring out if you're an app or if you're TVOS, what is your philosophy and approach to perhaps doing more short form. YouTube is kind of the place for short form. You'll see clips of SNL on Roku, and there are places here and there where short form content lives in streaming. For the most part, it's all YouTube. So if I'm a content platform or app, what is my short form strategy? And you can't compete with YouTube directly, and you can't boil the ocean, but maybe I need to do some more short [inaudible 00:05:05] to start to create something that's a similar experience. That would be one example of something you can do.
Daniel Frankel:
These are talks you're having with your clients right now?
Dave Bernath:
Yeah. We believe that for interactivity with the content, just what people are used to doing on their phones, short form makes a lot of sense. Also good way to discover content, because people open up their TVs, spend 10, 15 minutes trying to find something to watch. Short form, perhaps some personalized feeds, gives you a chance to kind of rapidly move through different things and go, oh. You see Tubi has put scenes on their phone, so you're looking at scenes of movies and then you're bookmarking maybe to watch later. That's just one example of a short form execution that created stickiness and also a content discovery path what would that would be [inaudible 00:06:00] could be compelling.
Daniel Frankel:
Interesting stuff. You're going to present it tomorrow here at StreamTV. What time?
Dave Bernath:
Early. It's definitely before 10:00 AM. I'm not sure exactly.
Daniel Frankel:
Get coffeed up. Get ready. Again, Dave Bernath, general manager of America's Wurl. I'm Dan Frankel, StreamTV Live. Thank you.