Let’s stop pretending we didn’t see this coming.

Fifteen years ago, YouTube was a chaotic mess of cat videos, screencasts, early vloggers, and unlicensed clips of The Office. CMOs avoided it. Agencies ignored it. And no one — no one — thought it would become the most-watched app on your living room TV.

But here we are in 2025. And while traditional networks were busy negotiating carriage fees and Nielsen panels, YouTube quietly installed itself as the new gatekeeper of attention — one Shorts view, one creator collab, one connected TV ad at a time.

This is the first installment in our ADOTAT+ series on YouTube’s quiet empire-building, based on a recent interview with Brian Albert, Managing Director of YouTube Solutions at Google — aka the guy who handles the big money conversations during the upfronts.

If you want to understand how YouTube positioned itself as the last true mass media platform, you start here.

Brian Albert has been at Google for 15 years. He started when YouTube was still fighting for legitimacy on media plans — somewhere below Hulu, maybe above LiveLeak.

Back then, it was desktop-only, mobile wasn’t serious, and CTV wasn’t even in the vocabulary. Fast forward to today: YouTube is the #1 most-watched app on connected TVs for two years running. By volume. By reach. By time spent.

And while everyone else in streaming was burning through VC cash, blowing up content budgets, or selling ad-supported tears to Wall Street, YouTube just... uploaded. Relentlessly. And then they optimized it. “We’ve gone from desktop video to a TV-first platform,” Albert said, almost too casually, considering the platform now outranks Disney+, Netflix, and Prime Video on total screen time.

This isn’t just a category shift. This is a platform coup.

While YouTube rewired the attention economy, traditional TV dug in its heels. They bet on familiarity: live sports, studio prestige, brand safety, expensive pilots.

YouTube bet on volume, velocity, and creators.

Today, hundreds of hours of content hit YouTube every minute — and none of it needs a greenlight, a table read, or a studio system. It just needs an audience. And it has one.

Brian called it out with data: more content is uploaded to YouTube in a single day than the entire libraries of the five biggest streaming platforms combined — not counting YouTube itself.

Let that sink in.

In terms of raw cultural production, YouTube is not just winning — it’s expanding the entire battlefield. Legacy media isn’t losing the game. It’s playing on the wrong console.

One of Brian Albert’s most telling quotes was this: “Our creators are this generation’s Hollywood celebrities.”

He didn’t say that as a throwaway line. He said it like it was already baked into the strategy decks at every major holding company.

YouTube isn’t making a bet on creators. It already owns the creator economy’s infrastructure. And now, it’s bundling that economy into every part of its offering — from ad formats to sponsorships to sports programming.

At Brandcast this year?
MrBeast and Lady Gaga shared the same stage.
That’s not a cultural mash-up. That’s YouTube saying: We can offer your brand both.

No other platform can do that. Netflix is still figuring out pre-rolls. TikTok is fighting to exist. And Instagram is still trying to prove it isn’t just digital Botox.

Meanwhile, YouTube is turning creator-driven scale into media buying standardization.

Brian Albert outlined YouTube’s five strategic pillars for this year’s upfronts. They sound tame. They’re not. Here’s how YouTube packages them, and what they really mean for advertisers:

In other words: YouTube has productized your entire funnel — from awareness to action — and wrapped it in creator clout, machine learning, and a self-serve dashboard. It’s not just Google Preferred anymore. It’s YouTube Select + AI + MrBeast + your media budget.

If you were wondering what YouTube’s version of “tentpole programming” looks like now, consider this: before the Super Bowl aired this year, 6 million people watched a YouTuber-hosted flag football game. That’s not a fluke.

Bryson DeChambeau, PGA pro, uploaded a Shorts series of him trying to hit a hole-in-one over his house. For 16 days. And people watched. Then they watched him in longform. Then they watched him live. And then they tuned into the Masters. I felt like I had a personal connection with him,” Brian said.

That’s not just a fan journey. That’s a media funnel in action.

This is what YouTube calls “Game Around the Game” — and brands are buying access to it. Sponsorships, creator tie-ins, shoppable ad overlays. It’s tentpole media without the $7M Super Bowl spot.

YouTube is selling reach, emotional intimacy, and conversion — all wrapped in a Shorts-to-longform lifecycle. And they’re doing it at scale. Every sport. Every season. Every algorithm.

YouTube isn’t just your streaming partner. It’s your TV buy. Your sponsorship strategy. Your creator network. Your AI media planner. And your full-funnel engine.

The question isn’t whether to buy YouTube.

It’s whether you realize how much of your marketing operation they’ve already replaced.

🔒 The JBP playbook YouTube uses to lock in long-term CTV commitments
🔒 How Shorts is quietly eating Instagram’s lunch (and why creators prefer it)
🔒 What “creator-industrial complex” means for brand safety and control
🔒 Why YouTube’s AI buying engine will flatten your agency model if you’re not paying attention

👇 Unlock the next four parts of this investigation.
YouTube already has your viewers. Don’t let them take your strategy, too.