YouTube Is Upgrading Its TV App to Look a Lot More Like Netflix
YouTube dominates streaming competitors in terms of ratings, but that doesn’t mean it’s afraid to use their most successful user interface tactics.
YouTube continued to beat all other video streaming platforms in ratings in the month of August, and it wasn’t particularly close. The platform was responsible for 10.6% of all TV watched in August, smashing paid subscription streamers like Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video. But just because YouTube is able to outdo those services in the ratings doesn’t mean it’s unwilling to use viewer engagement strategies they find successful. A new story from The Hollywood Reporter has details on the updates planned for the YouTube app in the near future, including several features that will make the platform more closely resemble paid streamers.
Key Details:
- YouTube will begin allowing creators to sort their episodes into seasons.
- The app will also show cinematic trailers when a user clicks on a creator’s page.
- A new feature will generate QR codes from links in video descriptions to help create more engagement.
YouTube first made the announcement of the changes coming to its connected TV app at a Made on YouTube event on Wednesday in New York. There was no word on whether the updates planned for the connected TV app will eventually come to YouTube’s mobile app or web interface in some form going forward.
Starting in 2024, YouTube will launch a more prominent and easier-to-use “Subscribe” function that will help creators boost their subscription numbers. It will also roll out a feature that generates QR codes from links in video descriptions, allowing viewers to access the links more easily. One new feature that streaming users will find very familiar is new “immersive previews,” a trailer that sums up the creator’s content which plays automatically when a user finds their page.
“Fundamentally, what we’re trying to do is make sure that we’re ultimately delivering results for creators and helping them achieve the vision of what they expect for their programming in the living room,” said Christian Oestlien, VP of product management at YouTube.
Beginning in 2025, YouTube will also allow creators to organize their episodes into seasons, much like on-demand streamers do currently. This will let users jump into creators’ content much more easily, and binge episodes chronologically just like they can on Netflix, Disney+, and other subscription video streamers.
“It’s a really great way for the audience to discover a creator and discover a show, just like you would when you’re browsing on another streaming service, where you watch one episode, you can clearly see the full season laid out, and it can encourage the viewer to want to keep watching, or even download the whole season before their flight to watch,” said famed YouTuber Michelle Khare.
One 2023 survey found that more than 35% of adults age 18-44 in the United States used YouTube on a smart TV or connected streaming player, the most of any service. These millions of viewers will start seeing some big changes on the YouTube TV app in the near future, as the service updates its interface to more closely resemble popular subscription streaming services.