Image Source: Mashable
YouTube Shorts will soon be able to be available on the biggest screen in the house, thanks to a player made just for HDTVs.
When YouTube Shorts first came out in the fall of 2020, they were made and optimized for creators and viewers on mobile devices. Users can watch Shorts in the YouTube TV app’s regular video player. But that isn’t made for the format, therefore, videos can be up to 60 seconds long.
Now, YouTube is bringing its fastest-growing format, Shorts, to TVs with a new way to watch them (its fastest-growing screen).
From November 7, YouTube Shorts on TV will be available worldwide. Users will need a smart TV made in 2019 or later, a gaming console, or a streaming device.
They’ll see a new Shorts “shelf” on the home page of the YouTube app on their TVs, or they can watch Shorts videos directly from a creator’s channel.
The team is made up of people from the YouTube Shorts and YouTube connected-TV teams. And they had to figure out how to keep the essence of YouTube Shorts. Especially when you shoot the videos in a vertical orientation, on wide-screen TVs.
During testing, they found that people liked a simple design with the video in the middle of the screen and a few other things going on. However, people also didn’t like how Shorts played in a continuous loop; to move to the next video, you had to press the up button on your remote.
Kurt Williams, in charge of product management, said people want to watch Shorts while sitting on the couch with friends. He also said that watching on another screen helps when tired of using a cell phone.
YouTube Shorts creators will share in profits
YouTube has started selling ads in mobile Shorts, and in 2023, it will start a program where creators can share in the profits.
When it starts, Shorts on TV won’t have any ads. Wilms said that would change next year. Also, users won’t be able to “cast” Shorts from their phones to a connected TV at first. But, 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 followed TikTok into the world of short videos. After that, however, YouTube was behind TikTok in the world of connected TV. As a result, the app for TikTok 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, the senior director of product management in charge of the Shorts, Creation, and Community teams. She said that plans to bring Shorts to TVs have been in the works since the feature was just an idea. But, she said, “It wasn’t a question of if, but when.”
Ali says that most people will still watch Shorts on their phones. The time spent on watching will increase with the launch of the TV experience. But she also said, “Putting content on TV always brings in new viewers.”
Read Also: YouTube Shorts will pay creators more in 2023
The video platform YouTube, which Google owns, says that more than 1.5 billion logged-in users watch Shorts every month.
Also, as of December 2021, 135 million Americans watched YouTube on TV every month. In addition, user stream more than 700 million hours of YouTube content to TVs worldwide daily.
