YouTube’s 20th year will bring split-screen streaming of ‘select non-sports’ TV channels and a redesigned TV app.
YouTube’s 20th year will bring split-screen streaming of ‘select non-sports’ TV channels and a redesigned TV app.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Wes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.
Like the idea of multiview, but want it for more than just March Madness and NFL Sunday Ticket? Lucky you, YouTube has announced that in the next few weeks, it’ll be giving YouTube TV members the ability to test out “building their own multiview with select non-sports content.”
The feature will be limited to a “small group of popular channels and expanding in the coming months,” the company said in a release emailed to The Verge. When asked whether any networks have opted out of the feature, YouTube spokesperson Allison Toh told The Verge via email the company is aiming to expand it “to a broad set of networks across all content genres.”
The YouTube TV app is getting a redesign soon, too, with “Easier navigation, playback, quality tweaks, plus streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing.” The Information gave a glimpse of what that may mean in March, reporting that the company is prepping a redesign that could make the app look more like Netflix and would include putting paid subscriptions on the app’s homepage. The change seems sensible, considering that YouTube viewers are now using it more on TVs than phones.
Meanwhile,Netflix is getting ready to roll out its own reworked homepage, something it started testing last year.
Finally, the company says it’s rolling out 4x playback speed on iOS and Android mobile devices for YouTube Premium subscribers. The company started testing that option back in January.
