- YouTube TV will soon offer a new premium add-on that lets subscribers watch shows in 4K or download them to their DVR to watch offline.
- No price or release date has been announced, but the add-on will also give subscribers unlimited streams in their home, as opposed to the 3 streams the service currently allows.
- More upcoming features include YouTube Shorts, new mixes on YouTube Music, and improvements to YouTube’s “full suite of monetization opportunities through commerce.”
YouTube TV is one of the most popular streaming TV services available, with more than 3 million active subscribers at last count. The platform has features that most of its competitors can’t match, and this week, the company announced that even more features are coming to YouTube TV in the months ahead.
In a blog post on Wednesday, YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan revealed that the service will soon offer an add-on option “that lets viewers watch available shows in 4K or download them to their DVR to watch later offline.” In addition to introducing 4K content, the add-on also gives subscribers the ability to view unlimited concurrent streams at home, which means you can watch YouTube TV live on as many screens as you can fit in your house.
YouTube TV has frequently grown more expensive since its introduction back in 2017, with the most recent price hike bringing the subscription to $64.99 per month. For that price, YouTube TV offers more than 85 live channels, unlimited cloud DVR, and three concurrent streams per household. There are also premium add-ons, including CuriosityStream for $3,
The company did not announce pricing or availability details for the YouTube TV 4K add-on.
In other news, the YouTube Shorts beta will begin rolling out in the US in March, bringing YouTube’s “short-form video tool” (aka TikTok clone) to American users. YouTube has been testing Shorts in India since December 2020, and their YouTube Shorts player is already receiving more than 3.5 billion daily views globally.
We also learned that YouTube plans to start automatically adding chapters to relevant videos, launch a redesigned YouTube VR app homepage, add new personalized mixes to YouTube Music, create new parental tools to keep kids safe, roll out an “applause” feature to let fans show their support for their favorite channels, and integrate a shopping experience into the platform “that allows viewers to tap into the credibility and knowledge of trusted creators to make informed purchases directly on YouTube.” All of this and more is currently in the works.
“Every single creator I’ve met has their own story about what led them to make their first YouTube video or how they turned their passion for video into an enterprise,” said Neal Mohan in the blog post. “We’re committed to both helping creators get started and providing more ways to succeed.”
