Eric Schmidt Claims YouTube Already Displacing Traditional TV

[dgstorm]

Google's Chairman Eric Schmidt had some bold claims about YouTube recently at a presentation to advertisers in New York. Schmidt shared the opinion that YouTube has already displaced traditional TV. He shared the fact that YouTube recently cleared the milestone of over 1 Billion unique visitors every month. To be fair, he did elaborate a bit further to clarify his point, sharing,

"It's not a replacement for something that we know," said Schmidt. "It's a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms."

Robert Kyncl, YouTube's global head of content, also shared "I thought that YouTube was like TV, but it isn't. I was wrong. TV is one-way. YouTube talks back."

Some statistics were shared that were a bit eye-opening as well... more 18- to 34-year-olds watch YouTube than any cable network.

Kyncl added, "TV means reach. YouTube means engagement."

Additionally, DreamWorks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg contributed this statement, "This is a whole new form of content, content delivery and content consumption. It's the medium of the future and the future has already arrived."

What do you guys think? Is YouTube really that much of a game-changer, or is this just marketing double-speak?

Source: Associated Press