YouTube is coming for bigger budgets as connected TV audience grows

YouTube is sharpening its pitch for a bigger slice of TV budgets, claiming its presence on the main household screen is delivering advertisers stronger returns than traditional linear TV.

Unveiling its latest advertising and commerce push at YouTube Festival 2026, the Google-owned platform said 13.7 million Australian adults now watch YouTube on connected TV screens each month, representing 64% of the online adult population.

Across all screens - mobile, desktop, tablet and connected TV - YouTube said it reaches 20.4 million Australian adults each month. But the bigger message to media buyers was around effectiveness.

New modelling from Analytic Partners, released as part of YouTube's presentation, found the platform delivered the highest return on investment compared with linear TV, BVOD and SVOD.

According to the analysis, 15 and 30-second YouTube ads delivered approximately twice the ROI of equivalent spots on linear television.

The findings sharpen YouTube's increasingly direct challenge to Australia's traditional television networks, which are themselves pushing harder into converged television propositions as viewing fragments across broadcast, streaming and digital video.

YouTube is also making a play for budgets at the other end of the video market.

The platform said 54% of Australian YouTube Shorts users do not use TikTok, while 65% do not use Instagram Reels, positioning Shorts as incremental reach rather than simply another destination for short-form social video.

Its modelling also claimed YouTube delivered 8.3 times greater long-term ROI than paid social.

The numbers arrive during an increasingly competitive Australian upfront season, as broadcasters, streaming platforms and global technology companies fight over how advertisers define and buy television, video and social audiences.

YouTube used Festival 2026 to push further into commerce as well, unveiling new tools designed to shorten the distance between watching an advertisement and making a purchase.

They include instant checkout links and Buy with Google Pay on television screens, alongside dynamic regional pricing and YouTube Insights.

The platform is also expanding tools available to creators and advertisers as it looks to turn its creator ecosystem into a broader commercial proposition for brands.