YouTube is making some major changes to its TV app to celebrate the platform’s 20th anniversary. The company says the app will get an overhaul soon with changes to the design, navigation, playback, quality tweaks, and new ways to subscribe, comment, and check channel information.
Reports claim that YouTube is aiming to turn the TV app into a Netflix-styled experience, which includes putting paid subscriptions on the homepage. This means users will soon get bombarded with ad-like banners that showcase other services such as Paramount Plus, Max, and Crunchyroll.
You can choose to subscribe to these services if you wish, and YouTube will then get a cut of the sale; however, you can also just choose to ignore it.
But the big changes come in the form of the general navigation and usability of the YouTube TV app. The company wants users to feel like they are watching shows and other content on it similar to the experience they have on Netflix.
YouTube confirmed that currently, the TV app is now outperforming the mobile app, and more users are watching YouTube on TV than ever before. So the shift to improve the app and offer more ways to sell ads to other companies makes sense.
Of course, YouTube has also announced a price hike for the service. YouTube Premium is expected to go up in price come June, with various packages seeing a R10 – R40 increase.
YouTube has yet to show off the design changes to the public. The company says it will arrive shortly and roll out at a gradual pace across certain regions.
In addition to the TV app changes, the iOS and Android app will also get a 4X playback speed toggle but only for YouTube Premium subscribers. This feature started rolling out already in January but was still in early testing. It should arrive in the next few weeks alongside the new TV overhaul.
Source: The Information (pay gated)
