Kyncl‎, YouTube Chief Predicts Digital Video to Surpass TV by 2020

YouTube sees a future where more people will be watching video than television. In fact, it will be here in just four years time!‎

In a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, Robert Kyncl YouTube chief business officer, predicted that viewing patterns will shift dramatically.

YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl “Digital video will overtake television to become the single largest way people spend their free time before the end of this decade,” he said, citing mobile viewing, virtual reality and music programming as the drivers of the shift.
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Kyncl based his prediction on trends of lower TV audiences yearly, coupled with the annual rise of mobile video viewing.
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TV viewing peaked in 2009, Kyncl said, quoting researcher Nielsen, and viewers currently watch five hours of TV daily. That compare to an hour and fifteen minutes daily of online video, which is growing 60% yearly.
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In late 2015, YouTube launched Red, a new ad-free subscription service, and the Google-owned service will bring in original programming from young YouTube stars in February.

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman speaks during the YouTube presentation at CES.
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In his presentation, Kyncl had several guests, including Scooter Braun, the manager for musical artists Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Tori Kelly, who all got their start on YouTube.
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