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When speaking at the IBC2026 conference, it became clear that YouTube is now a TV‑first cultural stage, and broadcasters, operators, and platforms should rethink collaboration rather than competition.
The outcome is inevitable, but “massive opportunities” are only available for those willing to integrate YouTube natively into their ecosystem, said Marc Heufelder, Country Manager, YouTube Product Partnerships DACH.
“The key question is how we can better collaborate to unlock more commercial success,” Heufelder said in the conference keynote The Power of Collaboration: Partnering for Growth. “YouTube attracts more than 2.7 billion users every single month. That’s why we consider YouTube the world’s cultural stage.”
The TV is officially YouTube’s leading and fastest‑growing platform globally, he added. Every day, users stream more than one billion hours of YouTube content on living‑room devices.
User behaviour is shifting as a result. “The TV is no longer a passive box,” Heufelder said. “It’s an active multi‑format entertainment device.”
In 2025, users watched 700 million hours of podcast content on YouTube via TV screens. Co‑viewing – multiple people watching together – has surged to 26%, higher than traditional broadcast co‑viewing in several major EMEA markets.
“The question is not whether we compete on the same screen,” Heufelder said. “It’s whether we collaborate to create more success for everyone.”
YouTube is rolling out Multiview, a feature that lets users drag and drop multiple live feeds into a single TV screen.
“We built the experience to allow users to select from a variety of live linear feeds and watch them at the same time,” Heufelder said.
Use cases include being able to stream multiple live football matches or multi-angles of sports like Formula 1.
“It’s a deeply immersive way to experience live content,” he said.
YouTube is also testing Conversational AI, powered by Google’s Gemini models, allowing viewers to interact directly with content on their TV. Viewers can use the microphone on their remote control to ask questions.
The executive warned that the biggest threat to operators was losing the user entirely when they press the source button to switch devices.
“If they can’t find the content they want, you lose discoverability, metadata, engagement — and potentially the customer relationship,” he said.
YouTube’s solution is native integration, starting with Dynamic Content Rails.
“We allow partners to integrate YouTube content as a carousel directly into their UX,” Heufelder said. “Every minute, 500 hours of new content are uploaded. We give partners full control to programme that catalogue for their audience.”
“We are part of the game,” Heufelder. “But we need to co‑service our content natively in your system.”
Sky and French telco Bouygues are already integrating YouTube’s TV‑native features.
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