Will YouTube’s new definition of a ‘view’ undermine its effort to tap into TV budgets?
On Monday, YouTube announced it was changing how it measures public video views across its platform globally.
From 24 August, YouTube will count a view “the moment a video begins to play—from the very first frame.”
The standard will apply across all formats, including long-form video, short-form video on YouTube Shorts, and livestreams. Previously, YouTube used different audience measurement standards for long-form video than for short-form video.
YouTube has never publicised how it previously measured long-form views, with industry estimates ranging from eight to 30 seconds of watch time required for a view to count.
Since March 2025, YouTube has measured Shorts views as any time a Short has played, with no minimum watch requirement. This matches how Instagram Reels and TikTok measure views on their platforms.
“Historically, we’ve used multiple view counting systems across different formats. However, we’ve heard that creators want to eliminate this metric confusion and accurately understand their true exposure, which is why we’re making this update!” a spokesperson for YouTube reasoned.
The older viewing metric will survive in YouTube Analytics as the retitled “Engaged views”, meaning creators (but not the public) can still access more granular viewing engagement figures.
Analysis: Change unlikely to materially impact ad buying
The lowered standard for views will almost certainly result in higher public view counts across the video-sharing platform. After all, what is communicated to consumers as a “view” will essentially become equivalent to an impression.
While that is likely to affect public perception of YouTube’s audience scale and individual YouTubers’ apparent engagement, media buyers tell The Media Leader it is unlikely to change how YouTube is planned and bought.
Ian Daly, head of AV at independent media agency the7stars, said the change won’t “materially impact” such practices. “Trades are usually reconciled on an impression or ‘billable view’, which has a different definition to [YouTube’s new definition of a view]. Obviously, buyers have an eye on other KPIs, too,” he explained.
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Daly posited YouTube created the new measurement standard “partly to simplify language and partly to bolster numbers that get used in the public domain”.
At the 2025 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, for example, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan claimed YouTube Shorts averages 200bn daily views. That is equivalent to every person on earth watching 24 YouTube Shorts videos per day, or every person with internet access watching 43 YouTube Shorts videos per day.
“I’d like to think planners and buyers worth their salt will know what metrics to plan, trade and optimise to,” Daly added.
Ben Ladbrook, performance lead for commerce at independent marketing agency Space & Time, concurred. “While this change is likely to increase reported view volumes across campaigns, the metrics that indicate genuine engagement, such as watch time, completion rate and engaged views, remain available and continue to be the most meaningful indicators of effectiveness,” he said.
That said, Ladbrook warned advertisers will need to “apply additional context” when comparing future YouTube performance against historical data, with view counts likely to be inflated, “despite no underlying change in audience behaviour”.
Not measured like TV
Importantly, the change comes even as YouTube has sought to position itself as a TV buy rather than a social buy as part of an effort to access more lucrative TV advertising budgets.
In an interview this summer, YouTube managing director and head of creators Kim Larson told The Media Leader that YouTube should “absolutely” be considered TV. When asked whether YouTube should be held to the same measurement standards as TV companies, Larson responded: “Tell me where you think we’re not held to the same standards.”
When The Media Leader pointed out YouTube does not maintain the same viewing standard as TV joint-industry currencies (JICs), Larson added: “There’s always been a debate about what constitutes a view. We’re always trying to get to an industry standard, because it should be a common language that agencies, advertisers, and creators can use. So I think we’re all looking for that commonality.”
The latest change in how YouTube measures a view undermines that assertion. After all, YouTube is now moving to measure views the same way as other social platforms, away from standards agreed upon by television companies.
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As Justin Lebbon, a media industry consultant and co-founder of Adwanted Events, noted, YouTube can change its viewing measurement standards at will, unlike television companies, which follow standards set by the wider TV industry and agreed upon by advertisers.
“TV just wouldn’t be able to do this,” he argued. “Not without the support and consent of buyers, and without dealing with all sorts of other measurement issues.”
Joint-industry television currencies, such as Barb in the UK, have higher viewing standards, though some concessions have been made in recent years as part of an effort to align cross-media viewing.
Historically, Barb measured minute by minute. This has been reduced to second-by-second reporting to meet international Media Rating Council (MRC) standards, which require at least two seconds of viewing of a video that occupies more than half the screen.
YouTube has also resisted efforts by Barb to provide channel-level measurement of its platform on TV sets. In February, the tech giant issued a cease-and-desist letter compelling Barb to shut down a measurement effort that had revealed YouTube viewing on UK TV sets was being dominated by content for very young children.
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Nick Tong, managing partner for media at Mediaplus UK, told The Media Leader YouTube’s new viewership measurement could undermine YouTube’s interest in being considered akin to TV on media plans.
“YouTube increasingly wants to be planned as television and compete for television budgets, particularly as more viewing shifts onto the CTV screen, but that has to come with comparable standards of measurement. Broadcasters operate within an independently measured ecosystem, whereas YouTube is still largely defining its own measures of audience and viewing,” he said.
While Tong agreed the change won’t “fundamentally alter” how agencies would plan YouTube buys, he warned that, at least until cross-media measurement standards are agreed across linear TV, connected TV (CTV), online video and broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD), “we have to be very conscious of the different definitions sitting behind the numbers we use to make planning decisions.”
Tong continued: “A video starting is an opportunity to see, not necessarily evidence that somebody meaningfully watched it. If the definition of a ‘view’ becomes broader, headline viewing figures may increase without any corresponding increase in actual consumption.
“Ultimately, we need to understand the incremental reach YouTube delivers, how long people are actually watching and the value of that attention. If YouTube wants to be planned as television, particularly on the television screen, it should expect to be measured like television.”