On Wednesday, YouTube celebrated the 20th anniversary of its first video upload. To coincide with the celebration, the Google-owned platform announced several new features that will be of particular interest to sports fans.
According to a report on Wednesday by The Desk, YouTube TV is set to launch new custom multiview experiences for its subscribers. Currently, YouTube TV customers are only able to access predetermined multiview options. However, moving forward, users will be able to create customized multiview experiences that go beyond what is currently available.
Per The Desk, only select sports and news channels offer multiview at the moment. Those channels include the ESPN family of networks, FS1, Golf Channel, and a slew of cable news networks. Occasionally, as YouTube TV did last month during March Madness, multiview options have expanded beyond those networks.
Now, Google plans to add non-sports and news programming to its multiview capabilities, starting with “a handful of channels.” The company did not reveal exactly which channels would be available for full customization at launch.
The expanded offerings will surely be welcomed by sports fans, who have been clamoring for this type of feature.
It’s unclear whether YouTube TV’s new capabilities will apply to the NFL Sunday Ticket package. Previously, YouTube TV has offered several predetermined multiview options for Sunday afternoon NFL games, but has not allowed users to pick and choose exactly which games are placed where.
In addition to rolling out enhancements to multiview, users that watch regular YouTube — not YouTube TV — on their television screen will also see some new features. Per Sportico, YouTube will be introducing “easier navigation, playback and quality tweaks,” for its television app.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.