YouTube TV Brings Back Multiview for NFL Draft; Is It Necessary to Have Three Feeds of Same Event?
YouTube TV Brings Back Multiview for NFL Draft; Is It Necessary to Have Three Feeds of Same Event?
While the NFL Draft isn’t a traditional sporting event, it is certainly an event that causes many sports fans to be glued to their TVs for three straight days, desperate to witness every pick, trade, surprise, and story from across the league. To make that easier, 30 minutes before the 2023 draft began on Thursday night, YouTube TV announced via tweet, that the live TV streaming service would be bringing back its popular, but mercurial Multiview feature.
Unlike the previous beta iteration of Multiview, which allowed fans to stream multiple games during the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, this version will not be broadcasting multiple events all at once, but instead broadcasting multiple channels covering the same event on the same screen.
This year, ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network are airing all seven rounds of the draft, and YouTube TV is now giving football fans the opportunity to never miss a single second of any of the broadcasts. The 2023 NFL Draft is taking place from Kansas City’s Union Station Thursday, April 27-Saturday. April 29. While all three of the broadcasts will essentially be covering the draft the same way during the first few rounds, as they get further into Days 2 and 3, each will begin to focus less on the picks themselves and more on the stories of the players selected and the needs of each individual team. However, with Multiview, now fans will be able to see every pick as soon as possible, and also choose which interviews, analyses, and predictions to check out at any moment.
Related: How to Watch the 2023 NFL Draft Live Without Cable
For the draft, the streamer is putting all three feeds into a single screen and allowing viewers to select which audio they hear at any given time. If one of the three broadcasts shows something that a fan is especially interested in, they are able to quickly click on that channel to bring it into fullscreen mode.
It is somewhat of an unusual choice for YouTube TV to make Multiview available for the NFL Draft. While the streamer is actively working on the functionality in order to debut it in full this fall with its launch of out-of-market football game package NFL Sunday Ticket, there is only one draft, it is just being covered by three different networks. So, not only does having all three feeds in a single screen feel slightly unnecessary, but the streamer actually has a much more applicable test case scenario happening right now that it is choosing not to bring Multiview out for.
Sports fans love this time of year not only because of the NFL Draft but also because the NBA and NHL playoffs are going on at the same time with multiple matchups from both leagues happening almost every night in the early rounds. However, YouTube TV has chosen not to deploy this useful feature to allow fans to watch multiple postseason games at the same time. This likely has to do with the sheer number of contests available during the Stanley Cup and NBA Playoffs and how YouTube TV is synthesizing the broadcasts into preselected packages, rather than allowing fans to pick the individual games to see in their specific Multiview, but it is still an interesting decision.
Nonetheless, NFL fans still have two more days to enjoy all of the action from Kansas City and, thanks to YouTube TV, they won’t have to miss a single second from any of the three networks covering the event.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 60 channels for $82.99/month. This plan includes local channels 32 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs) in select markets. The base plan includes more than 100 live channels, including major broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as popular cable channels such as ESPN, CNN, FX, USA Network, and TNT. Local channels are included in most markets, making YouTube TV a full replacement for traditional cable for many viewers.