Television ‘here to stay’ despite YouTube popularity — media executives

AMMAN — Television channels are “here to stay” although they are facing fierce competition from YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing website, media and Internet experts said this week.

“TV is the foundation for entertainment. Viewership of TV is robust and growing every day,” Sam Barnett, CEO of the MBC Group, said in a session during the Arab Advisers’ 11th Convergence Summit, which concluded Tuesday.

“TV is not dying,” Barnett added.

Mohammad Mourad, Google regional manager in the Gulf, said the number of television viewers as well as those accessing the Google-owned YouTube is rapidly increasing.

“I think TV is here to stay although YouTube access is on the rise too in the region and the world,” Mourad noted during the session.

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, and over 6 billion hours of video are watched monthly on the online platform — almost an hour for every person on Earth, according to its website.

Around 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and 80 per cent of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US. YouTube is localised in 61 countries and across 61 languages.

The experts said television channels and YouTube can coexist.

“What is unique about YouTube is that it enables the display of user-generated content and videos. But TV and YouTube can certainly coexist,” said Mourad.

Mohamed Burhan, CEO of CNBC Arabia, had similar views.

Many television channels can have more viewership through YouTube, he said. 

Although some television channels post their videos and programmes on their own websites, large viewership is generated when such videos are posted on YouTube, Burhan noted.

The fact that there is competition between television channels and YouTube makes it necessary to provide high-quality content that is relevant and attractive to the targeted audience, the experts pointed out.