According to reports seen by BMA, Google-owned YouTube is developing a feature allowing streamers to watch videos on the service through a “linear TV-like” experience.
BMA understands from the industry reporting that YouTube is talking with media companies and content creators about presenting videos through a hub of linear channels and could launch the new feature later this year.
YouTube is the biggest host of user-generated content on the Internet. In recent years, the service has successfully wooed traditional media companies to their platform.
Only recently has YouTube started to build off those relationships: Last March, the company announced it would offer more than 1,500 licensed movies and TV shows to users for free through a new, ad-supported part of the YouTube platform. The announcement was followed up several months later with the unveiling of YouTube Primetime Channels, a hub that offers access to third-party subscriptions like Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, MGM+ and AMC+.
Currently, YouTube users seek out content on their own or watch videos recommended to them through YouTube’s complex system of algorithms. Other services, like early incarnations of Pluto TV, repurposed YouTube videos into linear content streams, which YouTube appeared ready to do on its own as recently as 2021.
However, media reports suggest that YouTube’s current plans for linear channels will offer primarily commercial content created by traditional brands and studios, not user-generated fare.
Moreover, the development of a linear content hub stocked with top-tier movies and TV shows comes when marketers are increasingly looking to spend against free, ad-supported television (FAST) content, with some analysts projecting it could surpass ad spending against broadcast and cable television in two years.
