It’s an odd “in between” between classic TV and YouTube itself.
If you want to watch “the most likely thing you would want to watch” (NFL, Olympics main feed), YouTubeTV is great.
But as soon as you want to find something off the top few recommendations, it gets much harder. Compare that to regular TV, when I could just remember 27 is Discovery Channel and get there instantly.
Their TV choices are confounding. I don’t know about other platforms, but the YouTube app on Apple TV is the most useless thing I’ve ever tried. Search is abysmal.
Interesting, This is apparently a TikTok-like scroller for youtube channel content, which they should have done natively many years ago...
I suspect they never did this because they never wanted to make YouTube compete directly with cable TV. YouTube content is displayed in a drab click-click UI because they want users to not scroll deeper for the content that isn't sponsored (paid) all the way to the front pages.
The UI of YouTube hasn't changed in essence for ages, it's still page based with only a few (shrinking) trending lists.
I think the reason they do that is because it allows them to control what is prominently displayed across YouTube -- The same concept is used across most social apps, where there are few features for discovering new content. The pages display embarrassing low view metrics on non-sponsored accounts, even when they may have really great content, it's really a backwards way of controlling what trends, and subsequently what makes money for the platform and sponsored creators.
If real choice was allowed on most of these platforms, we'd see literally endless (new) options for interesting new content on a wider variety of topics from creators none of us know, but right now, with shrinking choice, we only see manufactured and heavily co-opted content creators like Mr. Beast, Kai Cenat, Joe Budden, Pewdie Pie, (etc)-- they are usually sanitized, coached, & trained personalities picked based on who sponsors them and based on what makes the most ad profit for the platform. Most of that content seems to be very rigged and fake to me, as they clearly have staff working out of view. I find most of that manufactured (Picked YouTube Influencer) content to be drab and over-scripted... I can't stand watching it on & off YouTube personally.
Interesting channel scroller... The way it plays content also seems to look far more lively than watching YouTube on the regular site for some reason. I'd love to easily see the option to customize what is displayed based on the YouTube channels I already follow, and links back to subscribe to channel content I like while watching. A feed for specifically music-related content (by genre maybe) would be highly useful.
YouTube TV was equal parts awesome and horrifying for the Olympics. It had plenty of great content, including a solid amount of 4k
It also had the worst search UX I have ever experienced.
Most importantly, recording an event did not guarantee you got the whole thing! There were numerous events I was watching from my ‘library’ that did not include the final 10-30 min of action. WTH? Did you really record based on time stamps alone? What year is this?!
That and the 50 other terrible design choices they made. What a hot mess youtube tv is.
The worst part is that it’s the best UI for its product segment by far, and I don’t think it’s even close.
The bar is incredibly low.
Compared to what? It's easily the best Internet cable TV product on the market IMHO.
It’s an odd “in between” between classic TV and YouTube itself.
If you want to watch “the most likely thing you would want to watch” (NFL, Olympics main feed), YouTubeTV is great.
But as soon as you want to find something off the top few recommendations, it gets much harder. Compare that to regular TV, when I could just remember 27 is Discovery Channel and get there instantly.
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It worked great on an ipad but on a TV app I had to go click, click, click, click 40 times to get to the channel I wanted.
Their TV choices are confounding. I don’t know about other platforms, but the YouTube app on Apple TV is the most useless thing I’ve ever tried. Search is abysmal.
Interesting, This is apparently a TikTok-like scroller for youtube channel content, which they should have done natively many years ago...
I suspect they never did this because they never wanted to make YouTube compete directly with cable TV. YouTube content is displayed in a drab click-click UI because they want users to not scroll deeper for the content that isn't sponsored (paid) all the way to the front pages.
The UI of YouTube hasn't changed in essence for ages, it's still page based with only a few (shrinking) trending lists.
I think the reason they do that is because it allows them to control what is prominently displayed across YouTube -- The same concept is used across most social apps, where there are few features for discovering new content. The pages display embarrassing low view metrics on non-sponsored accounts, even when they may have really great content, it's really a backwards way of controlling what trends, and subsequently what makes money for the platform and sponsored creators.
If real choice was allowed on most of these platforms, we'd see literally endless (new) options for interesting new content on a wider variety of topics from creators none of us know, but right now, with shrinking choice, we only see manufactured and heavily co-opted content creators like Mr. Beast, Kai Cenat, Joe Budden, Pewdie Pie, (etc)-- they are usually sanitized, coached, & trained personalities picked based on who sponsors them and based on what makes the most ad profit for the platform. Most of that content seems to be very rigged and fake to me, as they clearly have staff working out of view. I find most of that manufactured (Picked YouTube Influencer) content to be drab and over-scripted... I can't stand watching it on & off YouTube personally.
Interesting channel scroller... The way it plays content also seems to look far more lively than watching YouTube on the regular site for some reason. I'd love to easily see the option to customize what is displayed based on the YouTube channels I already follow, and links back to subscribe to channel content I like while watching. A feed for specifically music-related content (by genre maybe) would be highly useful.
I specifically was talking about the Youtube TV content that is cable over ip.
YouTube TV was equal parts awesome and horrifying for the Olympics. It had plenty of great content, including a solid amount of 4k
It also had the worst search UX I have ever experienced.
Most importantly, recording an event did not guarantee you got the whole thing! There were numerous events I was watching from my ‘library’ that did not include the final 10-30 min of action. WTH? Did you really record based on time stamps alone? What year is this?!
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