Funny cat videos? YouTube. Need to get that wine stain out of your button up? YouTube. Live news broadcasts and dozens of new original channel offerings? YouTube TV.
Funny cat videos? YouTube. Need to get that wine stain out of your button up? YouTube. Live news broadcasts and dozens of new original channel offerings? YouTube TV.
Yep, you heard that right; after a year of murmurs and mumbles YouTube has finally unveiled it’s newest product offering and ploy for entertainment—a live TV service.
Paralleling from YouTube Red, YouTube TV, which has been under construction for years under Google’s grand umbrella, has silently been drafting contracts with media companies hoping to distribute their content on its live-TV service.
CBS was the first major TV network to sign on to the service, with other studios roped into discussions including 21st Century Fox, Comcasts’s NBC Universal and Disney, which owns ABC, ESPN and others.
YouTube spokesperson David Bloomberg described the new offering as:
“a live TV designed for the YouTube millennial generation – those who want to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, without commitments.”
One of the main ways YouTube TV plans to storm the world of cable is through its new recording options designed to fulfill all of your fits and fancies—a DVR that never runs out of space, allows for simultaneous recordings and allows you to construct custom-tailored viewer profiles.
As easy to navigate as the already known YouTube app, YouTube TV will simply serve as an expansion app of the current online content—meaning that advertisers already contracted on YouTube will possess the opportunity to expand their reach and frequency with new placement offerings sponsored on YouTube TV. Not to mention that thanks to integration with Google’s connected home products, YouTube TV will also possess the ability to be directed by voice.
For example, once you navigate on over and launch the YouTube TV app, your phone will act as your remote and you’ll instantly be able to flip through the visual TV guide lined with hundreds of thousand videos, movies and live-broadcasts designed to fulfill your on-the-go and in-the-mood desires.
The app is separated into three sections — live, library and home. Under the live tab you’ll find all of the broadcast offerings. Broadcast shows will stream in real-time to all local networks and allow for more targeted advertisements to cast in relation to the user profile of your viewer and their location. You’ll also posess the opportunity to activate the “broadcasting” extension which will allow you to record your very own star-studded original content.
At any time on your tap-happy journey through YouTube’s newest television offerings, you’ll also be able to “cast” content and screen it on your TV or mobile device.
Now for the music to marketer ears—both Google and the networks will sell ads across this service, Google said. That means everything on the service will be ad-supported.
Ad spot offerings for unsigned companies and networks will officially open up once YouTube officiates its contracts with its current networks. Spokesperson Bloomberg believes this will be seen in the next 2-3 months.
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With the current selection on YouTube taken one step forward with YouTube TV, get ready for the binge-addict inventories to become virtually endless.
Be on the look out for pending accepted ad formats as they relate to YouTube TV—everything from display to bumper ads will be on the table and ready for the creative taking.
