Alphabet In Spotlight After Nielsen Says YouTube Captured 11% Of TV Viewership In February: Retail Turns Neutral

Alphabet, Inc.’s (GOOGL) (GOOG) on-demand video streaming service YouTube achieved a record monthly performance in February, according to media audience measurement company Nielsen.

YouTube took the lead in Nielsen’s February 2025 Media Distribution Gauge, improving 2% month-over-month, the firm said in a report released Tuesday. 

The gauge is the firm’s monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable, and streaming consumption through TV. 

In the process, YouTube captured 11.6% of the time spent watching TV across the month, up from 7.9% in February 2023.

This marked YouTube’s best monthly performance to date. Nielsen noted that this is the second time the Alphabet unit has topped the Media Distribution Gauge since its tracking began in 2023.

YouTube has also seen steady usage increases. The time spent watching YouTube on television was up 53% from February 2023. 

Nielsen’s study also revealed an interesting aspect—the overall increase in viewing has been driven by older audiences

Viewing by adults aged over 65 years has nearly doubled over the last two years, and this demographic now contributes a viewing contribution similar to kid

Alphabet reported a revenue of $10.47 billion from YouTube ads in the fourth quarter, accounting for about 11% of its total revenue. Subscription revenue from YouTube is clubbed under Google Subscriptions, platforms, and devices, contributing $11.63 billion. 

Earlier this month, YouTube announced a cheaper, ad-free subscription priced at $7.99 a month compared to the monthly tariff of $13.99 for the premium subscription plan. 

Alphabet recently announced a big-ticket acquisition to buy the cloud security platform Wiz.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward the stock tempered to ‘neutral’ (49//100) from the ‘bullish’ mood that prevailed a day ago. The message volume also tapered to ‘low’ levels. 

A watcher noted that Alphabet stock has broken out of a downtrending channel and flagged $180 as a key resistance.

Another user said Microsoft’s Bing is a better search engine and recommended selling Alphabet stock

Alphabet stock traded down 0.56% at $169.60 in Wednesday’s premarket trading after rising for three straight sessions, along with the broader market. It is down about 10% this year.

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