Whether it’s working with multiple monitors on our PCs, or using your phone while watching a movie, paying attention to many screens at once has become second nature to many of us. That’s why it was so cool when earlier this year, YouTube TVlaunched a multiview featurethat let sports fans stream up to four channels simultaneously, with all processing done on YouTube TV’s end. Expanding on this foundation, YouTube TV is starting to test five brand new multiview streams that grow beyond sports to span a diverse range of categories.
Following the introduction of multiview in March, YouTube TV is once again evolving, by beginning to offernew split-screen content, including both additional sports beyond basketball, and the introduction of wholly non-sport programming (via9to5Google). This development marks a significant extension beyond the original focus of the multiview feature, which began in time for March Madness.
The additional streams, covering news, sports, business news, weather, and Deportes (Spanish-language sports), will be available to viewers involved in this test around the clock, diverging from the prior event-based scheduled format. Notably, the news and weather streams offer continual information flow, with the weather stream serving more as a background feature.
The multiview mode allows for a variety of viewing arrangements, including two streams side by side, three streams arranged in a two-above, one-below format, or four streams arranged in a 2x2 grid. Users can quickly switch between streams for audio and captions and enter fullscreen mode whenever they’d like.
YouTube TV already indicated plans to allow users to “customize your own multiview streams,” and that sounds like a particularly timely feature with the NFL season around the corner. There are also efforts underway to extend this enhanced customization to the main YouTube app on TVs. The service says it will keep users informed as to when and if new streams become available for multiview.
