ABS-CBN Head of Digital Jaime Lopez (2nd from right) joins YouTube executives at an event in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. ABS-CBN is one of YouTube's partner networks on whose YouTube channel advertisers will be allowed to run unskippable ads. Benise Balaoing, ABS-CBN News

MANILA -- YouTube is now the new TV for Filipinos, search engine giant Google said Friday, as it noted that Pinoys' viewing habits have changed considerably in the last few years.

Speaking at an event for journalists and advertisers, Google Southeast Asia Data and Insights chief Nikki del Gallego said YouTube continues to be the number one video platform that Filipinos love the most when they need to watch short, long, or live videos.

Citing data from Kantar, Del Gallego said this also holds true for rural areas in Visayas and Mindanao, where 88 percent of Pinoys used YouTube in the last 4 weeks.

Del Gallego also said 76 percent watch YouTube on their smartphones, while 54 percent said they watched YouTube on their TV sets. The executive noted that more than half of the households in the study use their TV to watch online programs.

"This is the kind of big shift that we need to keep up with. It's a new definition of how they see TV. In fact, one of two Pinoys in rural VisMin say that when they watch TV online, to them that is watching TV," she said.

Google also announced that it allowing advertisers in the Philippines to run unskippable ads on the Youtube channels of its partner network in the Philippines. Among its partner networks is ABS-CBN.

The tech giant also launched a new shopping service in collaboration with e-commerce giant Shopee.