YouTube Plans Major Revamp of TV App After Overtaking Netflix, Streaming Rivals (Exclusive)

YouTube is planning a major revamp of its connected TV app, adding new functionality and an entirely new look in a bid to defend its lead in streaming from other streaming platforms like Netflix, Max, and Disney+.

The company announced its plans at a Made on YouTube event in New York Wednesday.

The new TV app includes a number of updated features, including some that could change how some creators categorize their videos by enabling them to organize shows around episodes and seasons, mirroring what viewers have come to expect on subscription video platforms.

And YouTube is rolling out what it is calling “immersive previews,” a cinematic video trailer that will automatically play when a user navigates to a creator’s page.

“When we launched Primetime Channels [YouTube’s third-party subscription offering] in the main app, one of the things we really wanted to make sure we delivered was, if you look for [HBO’s] House of the Dragon and you go to that channel page, you want to look by season and episode and have this really rich, immersive channel page experience which people have come to expect around episodic content,” says Christian Oestlien, VP of product management at YouTube, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Turns out, a ton of our creators are really leaning into that format too. They’re doing 20 to 40 minute videos, there’s kind of a season arc to it, there’s multiple episodes in it, so we’re giving them the tooling to really create what we’re calling Creator Show Pages so that if you’re a fan of Michelle Khare, you can go to her channel page and actually just kind of go on that sort of binge episodic experience that I think the lean back TV environment really lends itself to.”

The result is that creator pages look and feel a lot more like a show page that a user may experience on a Netflix or Max.

“There’s a lot of best practices in the space, in terms of, like, what is visually really appealing,” Oestlien adds. “But 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.”

According to Khare, the changes are meaningful.

“As a creator, what’s within our own control is making great content or the best content we can. but then to see your stuff displayed so beautifully in this capacity, I really think it just edges us further into that playing field against the major streaming services,” she tells THR. “Seeing the mock ups, for me, was akin to what I think some people might feel when you see yourself on a movie poster for the first time or on a billboard as a participant in a theatrical release.”

“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,” she adds.

YouTube will also roll out features meant to help creators grow their businesses, including a simpler and more prominent subscribe functionality on the TV app while videos are playing, and feature that generates QR codes from links in video descriptions.

It’s a change that YouTube hopes will boost subscribers for creators, and also drive engagement as users utilize the QR code functionality.

YouTube says that its immersive previews, QR code links and new subscribe functionality will be released this year, with the episodic and season functionality rolling out gradually beginning in 2025.

“It means a lot to [creators], actually, that YouTube has really become such a significant platform on televisions, and it allows them, I think, to really think about their programming and their content and their investment in their communities at the same level that sort of traditional media might be talked about,” Oestlien says. “It helps them build a community, a fan base, and ultimately helps them drive really big business, which sustains them on our platform and ultimately off platform.”

And to be certain, YouTube on the TV has become a very big business.

According to the Nielsen Gauge, YouTube accounted for 10.6 percent of viewing on connected TV devices in August, compared to 7.9 percent for Netflix, and 3.1 percent for Prime Video (everyone else followed with less than 3 percent).

And YouTube says that the number of creators who make a majority of their revenue from TV is up 30 percent year over year, and over the last three years, the number of top creators that received the majority of their watchtime on the big screen has increased more than 400 percent. That can be chalked up not only to YouTube’s scale in the living room, but the premium advertisers are willing to pay for reaching consumers via the TV glass.

But it is also an emotional change, one that makes the app feel more premium, while still being true to what makes YouTube, YouTube.

“I am a person who grew up watching my favorite shows on television, with my family, with my friends, and the majority of my media experience was that communal living room experience,” Khare says. “When someone sits down to watch something on TV, there is an expectation of of quality.”

Oestlien says that YouTube took creator concerns to heart when developing the new app, which he says has been years in the making.

“For a lot of them, I actually hear anecdotally that the primary way they’re consuming YouTube now is on the big screen. So they also talk to me as a consumer, not just as a creator, in terms of what their expectations and the experience they’re looking for is,” he says. “So I think what they’ve asked for is a lot of what you’re actually seeing come to life: How can we elevate the creator experience in the living room so that it feels much more premium, really great content for emerging creators.

“It’s been things like bringing Shorts to the living room,” he continues. “That was something where we weren’t totally sure how it would work out, but we knew that creators saw the growth in the living room, and a lot of the creators are focused on Shorts wanted to see that experience come to life in the living room to reach those audiences, and so we’ve invested a lot in making sure that Shorts is a really great experience in the living room, and we’re seeing really great uptake there.”