YouTube is planning a major revamp of its connected TV app, adding new features and an entirely new look as it seeks to secure its streaming lead from other streaming platforms like Netflix, Max and Disney+.
The company announced its plans at its Made on YouTube event in New York on Wednesday.
The new TV app includes a host of updated features, including one that could change the way some creators categorize their videos by letting them organize shows by episode or season, reflecting what viewers expect from a subscription video platform.
YouTube is also rolling out a feature it calls “immersive previews,” cinematic video trailers that play automatically when a user navigates to a creator’s page.
An immersive preview of YouTube’s new TV app
YouTube
“When we launched Primetime Channels (YouTube’s third-party subscription service) in the main app, one of the things we really wanted to do was, if you go to (HBO’s) House of the Dragon and go to its channel page, you can see it by season and episode, and we wanted to provide that really rich, immersive channel page experience that people expect from episodic content,” YouTube’s VP of product management Christian Estrian told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “We’ve found that a lot of our creators are really leaning into this format as well. They’re making 20- to 40-minute videos that have a storyline that unfolds over a season, with multiple episodes. So we’re giving them the tools to create what we call Creator Show Pages. If you’re a fan of Michelle Carr, you can go to her channel page and actually have a binge-watching episodic experience that’s perfect for a laid-back TV environment.”
As a result, the look and feel of your creator page will be very similar to the show pages that users experience on Netflix or Max.
“There are a lot of best practices in this space, like being really visually compelling,” Ostrien adds, “but fundamentally what we’re trying to do is ultimately deliver for creators and help them realize the vision they want for programming in their living room.”
According to Carré, the change is a meaningful one.
“As creators, the only thing we can control is making great content, or the best content we can, but seeing my work displayed so beautifully like this really makes me feel like I’m one step closer to being on the playing field against the major streaming services,” she told THR . “For me, seeing this mock-up is similar to the emotions you’d feel when you see yourself on a movie poster for the first time, or see yourself on a marquee as an attendee of a theatrical release.”
“It’s a great way for viewers to discover creators and shows. The entire season is clearly visible, just like when watching a single episode on other streaming services. This encourages viewers to keep watching or to download the entire season to watch before their flight,” she adds.
Shows on YouTube feature.
YouTube
YouTube is also rolling out features to help creators grow their business, including a simpler, more visible sign-up experience on the TV app while a video is playing, and the ability to generate QR codes from links in video descriptions.
YouTube hopes that this change will lead to increased subscriber numbers for creators and increased engagement as users use the QR code feature.
YouTube says immersive previews, QR code links and new subscription features will be released this year, with episode and season features rolling out gradually from 2025.
“YouTube becoming a significant platform for TV is really big for creators. I think it allows creators to really think about investing in their shows, their content and their community at the same level that traditional media is talked about,” Oestlien said. “YouTube helps build a community and a fanbase, and ultimately helps drive a big business that supports creators on our platform and ultimately off of it.”
And certainly, YouTube on TV has become very big business.
According to Nielsen Gauge, YouTube accounted for 10.6% of viewing on internet-connected TV devices in August, compared with Netflix’s 7.9% and Prime Video’s 3.1% (all other channels accounted for less than 3%).
According to YouTube, the number of creators who make the majority of their revenue from television has increased 30 percent year over year, and the number of top creators who get the majority of their watch time on the big screen has increased by more than 400 percent over the past three years. This is due not only to YouTube’s scale in the living room, but also the premium ad dollars that advertisers are willing to pay to reach consumers through TV screens.
But it’s also an emotional shift, one that makes the app feel more premium while staying true to what makes YouTube YouTube.
“I’m someone who grew up watching my favorite shows on television with family and friends, and most of my media experiences were in communal living rooms,” Khare said. “When you sit down to watch something on television, you expect quality.”
Ostrien said YouTube takes creators’ concerns seriously when developing the new app, which it has been developing for years.
“In fact, what I hear from a lot of them is that the primary way they watch YouTube is on a big screen, so they talk to me about their expectations and the experience they’re looking for, not just as creators but as consumers,” he says. “So I think what they’re looking for is the same thing you’re seeing, which is how do we elevate the creator experience in the living room and make it really great content for up-and-coming creators.”
“There was this thing about bringing Shorts to the living room,” he continues. “We weren’t entirely sure how that would work, but we knew that creators were noticing the growth in the living room. A lot of creators that are focused on Shorts wanted to bring that experience to the living room and bring it to their audience. So we’ve been investing heavily in making Shorts a really great experience in the living room, and we’ve seen really good adoption there.”
