YouTube is preparing a major redesign of its TV app that will make it more Netflix-like, according to a report by The Information. The new design, which is expected to be launched “in the next few months,” will display paid content from various streaming services on the homepage.
YouTube currently allows you to watch shows and movies from services such as Paramount Plus, Max, and Crunchyroll as part of its Prime Time Channels feature, which it will launch in 2022. Much like Amazon’s Prime Video, you can choose and subscribe to these third-party services through YouTube, with the platform receiving a cut of the payment.
However, this content can only be accessed through the Movies & TV tab in the YouTube app, which, as The Information notes, makes it difficult for users to find. It has also been reported that YouTube stopped adding new services to its prime time slot as it struggled to integrate paid content into its homepage.
But now the company aims to solve this problem by placing paid subscriptions on the main page of the app. It will also give creators the ability to show their videos by season – something the company has announced it will start allowing creators to do on its channels – as well as automatically play show previews, The Information reports.
“The vision is that when you go into our [TV] app and search for a show, it will just pop up, whether it’s a show from a primetime channel or an author,” Kurt Wilms, YouTube’s senior director of product management, told The Information. The company has made several notable design changes to its TV app over the past year, and last month announced that TVs have become the “primary device” people use to watch YouTube.
