Rural VisMin uses YouTube as the ‘new TV’, study says
Market research firm Kantar Media reported that households in socioeconomic classes D and E in rural Visayas and Mindanao see YouTube as the ‘new television’ (TV) to watch TV shows and segments.
The study revealed that one out of two Filipinos in these rural areas said streaming TV shows online is similar to watching traditional TV.
Among those who watch TV/online programs on the streaming platform, 76% said they use smartphones, while 54% use TVs. Media networks, like One Sports, were hailed as one of the top channels on the platform, with over 384 million video views and 41.8 million watch time hours.
“It’s just a different screen, a new way for them to experience their favorite programs,” Google Southeast Asia Data and Insights chief Nikki del Gallego said at an event.
She added that despite the ‘spotty’ mobile signals, 88% of the participants accessed YouTube in the last four weeks through “Piso WiFi”.
“This discovery made us believe that it truly has shifted the way their media habits are in the new era of media,” Ms. Del Gallego said. “It’s a shift we need to keep up with. It’s a new definition of how they see TV.”
The survey was conducted from January 24 to February 18, 2025.
Unskippable ads on TV networks’ channels
Google also announced its partnership with the media giants in the Philippines to run limited unskippable advertisements on their channels for $20,000/month per network pack.
The six network packs include entertainment, news, movies, food and cooking, sports, and music. The slots for each content pack are limited to only five each month.
“Non-skips are right now the strongest in driving effectiveness across all brand campaigns, across all channels,” said Ben Jern Loh, country video lead of YouTube Philippines and Malaysia at Google.
“The moment they upload their content on YouTube, whether it’s a livestream or whatever it may be, your brand will stand to own up to 100% share of voice (SOV) during those campaign period,” he added.
The Google executive noted that unskippable ads can reach up to 95% viewability among users and 2x ad recall, awareness, and consideration. – Almira Louise S. Martinez
