Soon, a player made just for HDTVs will make it possible to watch even the shortest YouTube videos on the biggest screen in the house.
When YouTube Shorts came out for the first time in the fall of 2020, they were made and set up to work best on mobile devices for both creators and viewers. Users can watch Shorts in the regular video player in the YouTube TV app. But that doesn’t fit the format, which lets videos be up to 60 seconds long.
Now, YouTube’s most popular format, “Shorts,” is coming to TVs with a new way to watch them (its fastest-growing screen).
From November 7, everyone can watch YouTube Shorts on TV. But, of course, users will need a smart TV made in 2019 or later, a game console, or a streaming device.
They’ll see a new “shelf” for Shorts on the home page of the YouTube app on their TVs, or they can go straight to a creator’s channel to watch Shorts videos.
People from the YouTube Shorts team and the YouTube connected-TV team are on the team. And they had to decipher how to keep YouTube Shorts’ main idea. Even more so when they are shot vertically and watched on a wide-screen TV.
During testing, they found that people liked a simple design with the video in the middle of the screen and a few other things happening. However, people also didn’t like that Shorts played in a loop, and you had to press the up button on your remote to watch the next video.
Kurt Williams, in charge of product management for YouTube on TV, said people want to watch Shorts while sitting on the couch with friends. He also said that watching something on another screen can help people who are tired of using their cell phones.
YouTube Shorts to create more revenue next year
YouTube Shorts has started selling ads in mobile Shorts, and in 2023, it will start a program that lets creators share in the profits.
When it starts, there won’t be any ads on Shorts on TV. Wilms said that next year would be different. Also, users won’t be able to “cast” Shorts from their phones to a connected TV immediately. But, just like on mobile and the web, viewers can like or dislike a video and subscribe to the channel of the person who made it.
Two years ago, YouTube started making short videos like TikTok. After that, though, it fell behind TikTok in connected TV. Because of this, the TikTok app has been available on Samsung, LG, and Google smart TVs for a while. And Amazon’s Fire TV got it for the first time in August 2020.
Sarah Ali is in charge of the teams for Shorts, YouTube Creator, and YouTube Community. She said plans have been in the works to bring Shorts to TV since the show was just an idea. “It wasn’t a matter of if but when,” she said.
Ali thinks that most people will still watch Shorts on their phones. But the launch of the TV experience is likely to make people watch slowly for longer. “Putting content on TV always brings in new viewers,” she also said.
YouTube, which Google owns, says that more than 1.5 billion users watch YouTube Shorts every month.
Read Also: YouTube Shorts creators will earn a share of ad revenue
Also, 135 million Americans watched YouTube on TV every month as of December 2021. Also, users stream more than 700 million hours of YouTube videos every day.
