YouTube overtakes Netflix in average daily viewing around the world

Analysts say Alphabet-owned platform’s evolution is one of the defining media shifts of the decade

YouTube has overtaken Netflix in average daily viewing among users around the world, according to analysis that reveals the digital platform’s ever greater media muscle.

A major shift to watching YouTube on television has fuelled a growing rivalry between the world’s pre-eminent digital and streaming platforms. “YouTube is not just cat videos any more,” Netflix’s co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, said recently. “YouTube is TV.”