And now, YouTube is looking to better integrate Shorts into its expanded viewing options, with a dedicated Shorts player soon to be integrated into YouTube’s smart TV app, which will see its short clips appear on the big screen in millions of homes worldwide. As reported by Protocol, YouTube is developing a new Shorts screen for connected TVs, which will frame Shorts clips in the middle of the big screen. As the Protocol states: “A mockup slide shown to the audience at a Google partner event showed a vertical video in the center of the screen, with the title of the video, the name of the song used in the clip, and quick access to thumbs up and down on the side .” This will provide a better viewing experience for Shorts on the big screen, helping to approach content consumption trends. Which TikTok is also trying to integrate. Many LG and Samsung Smart TV owners can already access the TikTok TV app, which uses a similar presentation format to this new YouTube display. Although as the Protocol notes, YouTube has a significant advantage over TikTok on this front, with the YouTube app installed on almost every Smart TV. Indeed, Connected TV (CTV) viewing is now YouTube’s fastest growing content surface, with over 120 million people now consuming YouTube content on their home TV screens every month. This could see this facilitate a huge new audience capacity for Shorts clips – and with 75% of YouTubers now engaging with Shorts in some form, it could help amplify the format to a lot more people, making more attention to content for YouTube creators. Which would be a big win for YouTube. A key element of the YouTube Shorts promotion is that Shorts can be used as a supplemental promotion for a creator’s main YouTube channel, where they can generate significant revenue through the YouTube Partner Program. As TikTok well knows, monetizing short-form videos is difficult because you can’t insert ads into short clips. This means creators have less potential to earn income from TikTok or Shorts clips – but using it as a means to drive viewers back to their main YouTube channel can be a much more sustainable monetization path. Which could, eventually, see more TikTok stars taking their talents to YouTube. This is a key existential concern for TikTok, with creators already expressing frustration over fluctuating Creator Fund payouts, while the structure of the app itself doesn’t lend itself to building followers, with more emphasis on displaying the latest trends. clip from any account. Perhaps, like before Vine, TikTok will eventually lose its top stars to greener pastures. For now, most of the top names seem to be content with posting on TikTok and other apps, with TikTok being more of a cross-promotion opportunity. However, signs are that many are shifting focus away from TikTok as a primary channel, which could lead to further concerns down the road. Along with expanding Shorts to the TV app, YouTube is also adding new YouTube Music features for connected TVs, including the ability to browse playlists and add songs and albums to your YouTube Music library directly from the TV screen. YouTube is also working on a new “Mosaic Mode,” which will allow subscribers to view up to four live streams on the screen at once, with the screen divided into quadrants. Which, I can only imagine, will further confuse children’s attention spans and confuse adults as youngsters learn to watch four simultaneous TV streams at once. Is this the future of media consumption? I guess in many ways we already consume multiple streams of content at the same time, with the TV playing as you scroll on your mobile device and possibly watching videos and other content in two streams at once. What are one or two other inputs into this mix? I mean, soon you’ll be in the metaverse, watching a virtual video screen as notifications pop up on the side of your vision, or you might be wearing AR glasses that add another surface of attention to the mix. The evolution of human attention is happening before our eyes, and in that regard, YouTube’s multi-screen presentation probably makes a lot of sense.
