Do you remember that thing called live TV? When you have to sit down and watch a show at a specific time? Seems like a forgotten time, right?
Well, YouTube, the online video platform, wants to make Americans watch live TV again with the launch of YouTube TV.
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For the price of $35 you can get live TV streaming from channels include ABC, CBS and Fox, watch TV shows like Empire and sport on ESPN.
The new service can be watched on a computer, mobile or tablet connected to the internet, or on TV with a Google Chromecast.
One membership allows up to six accounts and you can watch up to three streams at a time – so there should be fewer arguments about who is using the service.
It’s interesting that YouTube has gone down the route of live TV when for many millennials, the platform’s target audience, live TV is something they don’t engage with as much – unless it’s a big event like the SuperBowl or The X-Factor final say. The platform says it is bringing the best of the YouTube experience to live TV, designed with the ‘YouTube generation’ in mind.
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By GlobalData
One of the good things that YouTube TV is offering its customers is unlimited cloud DVR storage.
This will allow watchers to record as many shows as they want simultaneously and not run out of storage. Each recording will be stored for nine months.
According to a study by the Media Briefing, this could tap into the different ways the younger generations consume TV. 16-34 year-olds are more likely to make use of online catch-up services compared to recorded television, however, YouTube TV could change this.
“The announcement that YouTube will be launching its own live television streaming service is unsurprising, given the shift towards on-demand TV that has been driven by industry leader Netflix,” Darren Khan, UK & European managing director of the online video marketplace, Genero, told Verdict.
“Crucially, as consumers shift towards on-demand video that increasingly sits on social media such as YouTube and Facebook, advertisers will be quick to get a slice of the younger online market – so often a tricky customer to permeate. Thus brands will face the challenge of having to quickly transform their own approach to create ad content that thrives on the smorgasbord of new platforms. YouTube poses a real threat to traditional cable television, but for brand leaders it offers huge opportunities to create ads that the younger YouTube audience actually wants to see.”
Meanwhile, over at Mobile World Congress Netflix has been forced to deny reports that it is changing the way the streaming platform works in the UK.
After rumours that it was going to launch a pay-as-you-go service in the UK, where users would pay for a specific show instead of a subscription, Netflix’s vice president of product innovation Todd Yellin told Business Insider that it was an “unfounded rumour” and “not true”.
When asked if he considered YouTube’s new product a threat to Netflix, Yellin said:
“We look at it like, internet TV is going to explode, we’re just surprised it took as long as it did. It raises up everyone and it’s a growing market, and we just want to be a big part of a growing market.”
