YouTube has been the most used content streaming platform for decades now. As of now it has more than 2 billion active users worldwide. Recently through its live TV streaming services it also created a good number of following in the world of TV streaming, offering live broadcasting of more than 100 channels. It was already popular on smartphones, tablets and computers which accounted for most of its viewership, but now, it has started dominating the TV space as well.
YouTube has come up with some tools that will enhance user experience when streaming it on TV. The new tool will include ways that will optimize the content available for display on a large screen like TV. This will make the contents closer to the TV style and norm. YouTube will offer a “cinematic” version of its creators’ videos, which will be optimised for TV streaming. Also, the creators will be able to organise their content to seasons and episodes, making a more organised and TV familiar design.
These tools will obviously help out YouTube in getting an edge over the TV streaming market. YouTube chief Neal Mohan said about televisions, “It’s the fastest growing screen…So, it is a very large surface for all of our creators.” He also said that in July, streaming made a history in TV viewing, accounting for 41.4% of total viewing time in the US. Out of this YouTube dominates the space with 10% share.
Thomas Kim, YouTube product management director said at a roundtable discussion, “It’s clear that our living room presence is growing across multiple demographics and ages” iterating on the TV as a more traditional way of viewing content, which is a comfortable space for many. This tool hence, will serve as a game turner for traditional YouTube content streaming. Where the TV space is mostly used for watching OTT and live TV streaming, this will be revolutionary when TV will be used for viewing traditional YouTube creators’ contents, which will be optimised for TV.