Streaming video platform YouTube earned nearly $9 billion in revenue during the third financial quarter (Q3) of the year as the service’s advertising and subscription business picked up steam over the summer.
The $8.92 billion in revenue earned during Q3 was more than 10 percent of parent company Alphabet’s $88.3 billion earned during the three-month period that ended September 30. YouTube is operated by search giant Google, which is a business unit of Alphabet.
YouTube’s revenue was a 12 percent increase compared to Q3 2023, the company disclosed, and was fueled by an uptick in combined advertising spend and subscription sales.
YouTube’s subscription products include YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and the cable-like service YouTube TV, which offers streaming access to broadcast and cable networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CNN, Fox News, TBS and TNT. YouTube is also the exclusive distributor of the NFL Sunday Ticket, the football package that offers live access to games airing on CBS and Fox stations beyond a fan’s local area. The current season’s NFL Sunday Ticket package went on sale during Q2, but was deeply discounted for new subscriber who purchased it through YouTube TV in Q3.
YouTube also sells subscriptions to third-party services like NBA League Pass, Max, Starz, AMC Plus, Paramount Plus, MGM Plus and Vix, though the company does not disclose how many subscriptions it sells or the revenue it earns from the streaming marketplace. Typically, companies that sell subscriptions to their services through YouTube and others count them toward their total customer base in their own earnings reports, if they are required to do so.
YouTube’s advertising business has been depressed in recent months, exacerbated by headwinds in the advertising space that has also weighed down traditional and emerging video-based companies alike.
Still, YouTube has proven to be a hit with streamers, with the platform counted as one of the most-used in the world. In the United States, YouTube consistently ranks at the top of Nielsen’s “The Gauge” report, which breaks out the share of TV consumption across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms on a monthly basis.
More than 80 percent of Americans engage with YouTube on a regular basis, according to a survey published by Pew Research earlier this year. One-third of those surveyed said they use YouTube for news and information, positioning it as an important platform as the country moves toward the November election.
