Like all digital platforms, YouTube’s business model is built around keeping users connected for as long as possible. The Google-owned video streaming service has accomplished that predominantly through its recommendation algorithms, which aim to follow one video clip with another similar one, based on a user’s tastes.
According to Tim Katz, head of sports partnerships at YouTube, global users of YouTube’s mobile app record an average session length of 60 minutes each time they open YouTube’s main app on their phone. “A user might come to watch a Taylor Swift music video, but we can actually recommend a 49ers highlight to that user based off what we know about them,” Katz said at last week’s Horizon Summit at Levi’s Stadium.
“The majority of time that a user watches a video on YouTube, it’s not because they came and searched for something specifically, but it’s actually based on what we’re recommending them based on what we’ve seen them view in the past,” he added.
In addition to tracking previous videos watched, YouTube also uses location to recommend videos to users. For example, someone from the Philippines is likely to get recommended NBA content rather than another sport because the NBA is overwhelmingly popular in the country. Most of the sports-related content on YouTube’s main app comes from leagues uploading game recaps and highlight compilations, and does not generally include live sports.
Most videos watched on YouTube’s main platform are via mobile device, but YouTube TV subscribers typically spend more time viewing on smart TVs and gaming consoles according to Katz. YouTube TV allows users to live stream channels such as ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, and affiliated channels such as Fox Sports, FS1, and NBC Sports, as well as the regional sports networks that Fox recently sold to Disney. MLS clubs such as Los Angeles F.C. and the Seattle Sounders also locally stream matches exclusively on YouTube TV. Additionally, the Google-owned streaming service will broadcast 13 MLB games in the second half of the 2019 season. Those games will also stream on MLB’s YouTube channel.
YouTube’s model and recommendation algorithms have put the company under fire in recent weeks. In early June, the New York Times reported that researchers had found that the company’s algorithms could point users who had watched erotic videos to suggestive clips of young children. And the same week, according to the Washington Post, the company planned to take down thousands of videos uploaded by white supremacists.
Analytics allows YouTube to learn a lot about its viewers, but this data is also consumed by rights holders who partner with the company so that they can learn how to upload better content from their own YouTube channels. Katz specifically called out the WWE as a partnered sports league that monitors videos its fans are posting to YouTube as a way to learn about what types of videos achieve the most viewership.
“They [the WWE] have this army of fan uploaders that are essentially editors testing different content types that they upload,” Katz said.
To grow YouTube’s sports offering in the U.S.—on both its main app and the YouTube TV streaming service—Katz says he is open to integrating elements of both fantasy sports and sports betting. While media companies like Fox Sports and theScore have opened their own sportsbooks, YouTube may take a different approach to sports betting.
“With fantasy, we’ll probably be more proactive in trying to reach out and work with folks to create a sticky user experience. With sports betting, there’s a lot of different components in terms of advertisers and user experience—there’s a lot of different ways you can think about it. Our company will probably be more conservative on the gambling side and follow the league’s leads more.”