You Can Finally Build Your Perfect NFL Viewing Experience With Customizable Multiview
Football fans will now be able to watch up to four games of their choosing in one screen.
When YouTube TV announced that it would be introducing a multiview feature in the spring of 2023, it was rightly hailed as a substantial step forward for sports fans as it allowed them to watch multiple games at once in a way that had rarely been possible in streaming before. However, there were legitimate complaints about the setup; primarily that fans were only able to watch pre-determined mixes of games. However, ahead of the 2024-25 NFL season, YouTube has announced that its multiview feature will be far more customizable for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers this season.
Key Details:
- YouTube TV launched its multiview feature last year with pre-determined selections of games.
- Now, customers will be able to select which combinations of NFL Sunday Ticket games they want to put into a multiview.
- Football fans will be able to package together two, three, or four games this season.
Inherently, customizable multiview features require significantly more computing and streaming power than a normal streaming channel, because they are actually four individual feeds pieced together into a single screen. This is why YouTube TV has heretofore preselected the different game packages it offers. By forcing viewers to select multiview combinations that are already cobbled together, YouTube can simply stream them as single feeds rather than the more complicated four feeds.
Therefore, the step to provide Sunday Ticket subscribers the ability to select what games they want to put together in a multiview configuration is significant. While Fubo already provides this option to customers streaming on Apple TV devices, no one in streaming has yet been able to do this without the extra power of an external streaming device.
YouTube is making this new function available to all Sunday Ticket customers, whether they also subscribe to YouTube TV or they simply get the out-of-market package via YouTube Prime Time Channels — and therefore watch via YouTube. All customers will be able to select two, three, or four games that they would like to put together into a multiview combination. However, there will be limitations when it comes to the games streaming via a viewer’s local channels due to all of the different affiliates broadcasting games around the country. Therefore, while fans can build a fully customizable multiview of any game on NFL Sunday Ticket, the options will be slightly more limited when attempting to include games available locally on CBS and Fox.
YouTube tested a customizable multiview feature in January 2024 with an eye on launching it for the fall football season.
“Get the ultimate fan experience right in your living room: creating the optimal multiview combination is now in your control,” YouTube said in a release about the feature. “We began testing the ability to build a multiview earlier this year, but we’re excited to now make it available for NFL fans on both YouTube and YouTube TV.”
Currently, pre-determined versions of multiview are available across smart TVs, streaming devices, mobile phones, and tablets, while the customizable version will be available for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers when the season kicks off on Sunday, Sept. 8.
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is a subscription video streaming service that allows football fans to watch every live out-of-market NFL game on Sunday afternoons on YouTube or YouTube TV.