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Google-owned streaming platform YouTube is expanding viewing access of Shorts to the TV screen.
Users will require a recent-model smart TV (often from 2019 or later), gaming console, or streaming device like a Chromecast or Roku player to watch YouTube Shorts on TV. They can access Shorts directly from a creator's channel or a new Shorts "shelf" on the YouTube app's home screen on their TVs.
"Bringing Shorts to our community has transformed the way people create and watch videos on YouTube. When we introduced this new format, we optimised the experience for the mobile creator and viewer," Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer, said in a blogpost
"Today, we are expanding viewing access to Shorts to our fastest growing surface: the TV screen. While this may seem like a natural next step, an incredible amount of thought and care has gone into bringing this vertical, mobile-first experience to the big screen. In this next installment of our Innovation Series, you will hear from two of the user experience (UX) design leads who made this leap a reality," he added.
To make this happen, product managers, engineers, designers, and researchers from the Shorts and TV teams came together to discuss bringing this new video format to the big screen. YouTube said it was important that the Shorts experience on TV felt consistent with what the community sees on mobile and natural on the bigger screen.
YouTube followed TikTok into the short-video space two years ago, and it is also trailing TikTok in the connected-TV realm. TikTok's app has been available on Samsung, LG, and Google smart TVs and first came to Amazon's Fire TV in August 2020. However, TikTok was banned in the country following border hostilities with China in the same year.
YouTube Shorts was first released in India in September 2020, and it is claimed that over 1.5 billion logged-in users in over 100 countries watch the content monthly, generating over 30 billion views every day.