YouTube TV prepping to display titles from on-demand streamers

YouTube TV prepping to display titles from on-demand streamers
The move is designed to simplify the process for users who subscribe to services via YouTube TV’s Primetime Channels.

When it comes to live TV streaming, the past few years have been dominated by YouTube TV. The Google-owned streamer has amassed a significant subscriber advantage over competitors like Hulu + Live TV, Fubo], and DIRECTV STREAM. Over a year ago, YouTube TV hit 8 million subscribers, but it looks like the service isn’t looking to rest on those laurels. Instead, The Information is reporting that the YouTube TV app will start integrating shows and movies from subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming services into the platform’s homepage. While consumers will still have to pay to access this content, the move is designed to eliminate a pain point of having to bounce between sections of the app to access all of the streaming titles you want to watch.

Key Details:

• YouTube TV plans to integrate titles from streaming service on its homepage in the next few months.
• The move is designed to make it easier for users to access shows and movies via their Primetime Channels subscriptions.
• The platform will also apparently incorporate content from traditional YouTube creators as well.

For the past two and a half years, YouTube TV’s Primetime Channels have allowed subscribers to sign up for on-demand streamers from within the YouTube ecosystem, consolidating billing and account management. However, that content was housed under the app’s Movies and TV page, making it difficult to access for some subscribers.
Now, Google is set to begin showing certain titles from popular Primetime Channels options on YouTube TV’s homepage. It was unclear from the report whether these placements would be exclusively reserved for shows and movies on services that users already subscribed to through Primetime Channels, or if they would include shows from other add-on streamers as a form of advertisement. However, based on the stated intention of the project, it does seem that at least the overarching intention will be to highlight popular titles from services that viewers have already signed up for.
The design update is expected to go public in the next few months and is expected to mirror streaming hubs like Prime Video and Apple TV that will make it easier for subscribers to access all of the content available to them through the services that they sign up for. But, because YouTube is YouTube, it sounds as if the live TV streaming platform will begin integrating content from traditional YouTube creators as well.

“The vision is that when you come to our [TV] app and you’re looking for a show,” YouTube’s senior director of product management Kurt Wilms told The Information, “it’ll just blend away whether that show is from a Primetime Channel or that show is from a creator.”
In The Information article, Wilms did not elaborate on how this would work in practice in the app, but it would make sense that the creator channels included would be those that the individual users already subscribed to. Of course, Google rarely misses an opportunity to algorithmically suggest new products and videos for consumers to buy and/or watch, but hopefully those will be kept to a minimum inside a service that is already fairly expensive.
The move to incorporate titles from PrimeTime Channels is most likely designed to keep consumers inside the YouTube TV ecosystem. The easier it is for users to have all of the streaming content that they want to watch in a single place, the more likely they are to become reliant on the service — and therefore less likely to cancel. So, if YouTube TV can make itself the center of a customer’s streaming experience, it moves even closer to becoming an indispensable utility in more households.
YouTube Primetime Channels offer over 40 individual channels and streaming services to purchase with costs ranging from $2 to $17 per month. Some of the most popular are AMC+, Crunchyroll, Hallmark+, Max, MGM+, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, Shudder and STARZ. Primetime Channels is also where you can sign up for out-of-market sports packages as well, including NFL Sunday Ticket, NBA League Pass, WNBA League Pass, and more.

Original Article