[ad_1]
The shortest videos on YouTube come to the biggest screen in the house – on a player built for HDTVs.
YouTube Shorts, first introduced in fall 2020, were developed and optimized for mobile creators and viewers. While users have been able to watch Shorts in the standard YouTube TV video player, it is not optimized for the format, which allows videos up to 60 seconds in length.
Now YouTube is launching a new play area for Shorts (its fastest growing format) on TVs (its fastest growing screen). YouTube Shorts on TV is streaming worldwide starting November 7. Users will need a latest model smart TV (from 2019 or later), game console or gaming device such as Chromecast or Roku player. They’ll see the Short Videos “library” on the home page of the YouTube app on their TVs, or they can launch short videos directly from the creators’ channel.
The main challenge for the team, which brought together members of the YouTube Shorts and YouTube Connected TV teams, was to find a way to preserve the essence of the YouTube Shorts – shot vertically – on widescreen TVs. In tests, they found users preferred a more seamless design with video in the center of the screen and fewer distractions. In addition, people did not like to have shorts that played themselves in constant feeding; to go to the next video, you press the button at the top of your remote.
“Users want another way to experience shorts, by relaxing on the couch and watching them with friends,” said Kurt Wilms, director of YouTube TV product management. “It also helps with mobile phone fatigue to watch on another screen.”
YouTube has started selling ads on mobile shorts, and is launching a revenue sharing program for creators in 2023. At launch, YouTube Shorts on TV will not include commercials; That work will come next year, Wilms said. Additionally, users will initially not be able to “stream” Shorts from a mobile device to a connected TV. As with Short on mobile and web, viewers can like or dislike a video and subscribe to the creators’ channel.
YouTube followed TikTok into the short video space two years ago, and is following TikTok into the connected TV space as well. The TikTok app is already available on Samsung, LG and Google smart TVs and first arrived on Amazon Fire TV in August 2020.
YouTube’s plans to bring Shorts to TV have been in the works since the feature was on the drawing board, said Sarah Ali, senior director of product management who leads YouTube’s Shorts, Nature and Community teams. “It was not a question of if, but when,” he said.
The majority of Shorts viewing will continue to be on mobile, and the launch of the TV experience is expected to increase viewing time exponentially, according to Ali. That said, he added, “Bringing content into the living room always brings new audiences.”
Google’s video platform says YouTube Shorts are watched by more than 1.5 billion logged-in users each month. As of December 2021, 135 million people in the US each month watch YouTube on television. Worldwide, users stream more than 700 million hours a day of YouTube content on television.
[ad_2]
Source link