Media Companies Are Falling Behind On Shorts

Creators long ago took over YouTube, so it's not necessarily news that they accounted for over 95% of U.S. views on the platform over the last 30 days (May 11-June 11, via Tubular Labs data). But despite creators setting the tone around how content is being consumed, media still seems to be holding out.

Tubular data below shows the 30-day breakout for views overall on U.S. YouTube videos, plus creators and media, to shed light on the share of views split – and how media's still leaning more heavily on durations that are less impactful from a views perspective.

• 80.6% of U.S. creator views came from videos that were under one minute long – relatively in line with the domestic totals of 79.7%.
• Longer videos were also a match for creator and the full platform, with 3.4% of U.S. creator views coming from videos 20 minutes or longer, versus 3.7% of views for all U.S. accounts.
• But the media breakdown looks significantly different: Just 41.3% of views are from videos running one minute or less, with 13.3% coming from 20 minute-plus videos. Media companies are also getting more views in mid-range video lengths; but those make up a relatively small piece of the total pie.
• Media companies shouldn't avoid longer videos entirely (and may have actually identified an area of opportunity there in videos longer than 20 minutes), but seem to be missing the boat on Shorts, where creators have excelled.

Learn more from Tubular data around video duration optimization in their latest report here.