YouTube Brings Shorts To Connected TVs
Source: YouTube
YouTube Shorts are coming to a TV screen near you. YouTube announced it’s making Shorts available on smart TVs, streaming devices, and gaming consoles. Viewers can watch Shorts on these devices and interact with them by liking/disliking videos, subscribing to creators’ channels, and more.
A Customized Viewing Experience
According to the platform, bringing Shorts to TVs was much more complex than simply making them available. YouTube leaned on its community for research and feedback to create a customized viewing experience for the vertical, mobile-first content format. Several iterations later, the company landed on an experience that put Shorts in the center of the screen, along with like/dislike and more information buttons. Shorts are vertically scrollable, but viewers must manually advance to the next one using a remote.
Why Shorts & TV Screens Are The Perfect Match
The arrival of Shorts on TV is a perfect match since it combines the fastest-growing content formats on YouTube with the fastest-growing ways for people to consume YouTube content. With TVs being a prominent surface for YouTube viewing, it can help bring Shorts to a larger audience, particularly those that are consuming YouTube content outside of their phones.
TikTok Was First
YouTube isn’t the first to bring short-form videos to TV screens. TikTok launched the TikTok TV app last year to allow viewers to watch videos on Amazon Fire TV, LG Smart TVs, Samsung Smart TVs, and more.
Also this week, GIPHY launched Public Axis, a new, exclusive app on Roku that allows viewers to view GIPHY Clips, which are 30 seconds of original clips, on their Roku devices. Surprisingly, Instagram has not made any effort to bring Reels to non-mobile devices.
It's safe to say that short-form videos will always be consumed mostly on mobile devices, but expanding to a bigger screen can increase consumption by providing convenience and community. Whether people have mobile-phone fatigue or prefer to watch videos on a bigger screen, they can still enjoy Shorts content in a way that works for them. In addition, the TV viewing experience enables people to watch their favorite Shorts with groups of friends.
Shorts are already being watched by more than 1.5 billion YouTube users every month. According to Nielsen’s Gauge rankings for September, YouTube was the most-used streaming service, so this number for Shorts is bound to increase incrementally.
An Opportunity & Challenge For Creators
With creators leading the charge for Shorts in creation and consumption, this directly impacts them. It presents an opportunity and a challenge. The ability for their Shorts to show up across new surfaces increases their visibility and discovery. Ads won’t be run with Shorts on TV to begin with, but once they are, creators will have the ability to monetize through the new revenue share program. On the other end, creators may need to consider how their videos appear on smart TVs, streaming devices, and gaming consoles.
Although YouTube designed a customized experience for the TV, that doesn’t mean all content will be designed for bigger screen experiences. If TV views prove significant, some creators may consider upping their equipment to ensure that the quality of their videos matches the high-quality devices being watched on.
