As people continue to stay at home during Covid-19 lockdowns watching more YouTube on their televisions, Youtube is trying to persuade advertisers to join them.

Google's Youtube is offering new tools and audience statistics specifically for advertising on TV. Marketers on YouTube will now be able to access consumer surveys from YouTube’s TV viewers and run more commercial formats, such as skippable ads.

From March 11 to April 10, hours watched across the globe increased by 80% compared with the same period a year earlier, YouTube said on Thursday. Consumption of news programming and full-length movies had even steeper jumps.​

Most of the latest TV content is new -- over 60% of the viewers watched videos published within a week, according to the company, whose content is available on televisions via the YouTube app or YouTube TV subscription service.

YouTube collects the most video ads online, but the company is also trying to convince marketers to shift dollars over from pay-TV networks.