Bottom line: YouTube TV earlier this year launched a feature (in early access) called multiview. With it, sports fans could watch up to four game streams at once on their big screen television. Now, the service is getting more viewing options but a lack of customization is still holding it down.
Multiview arrived just in time for March Madness and allowed viewers to switch audio and captions between streams, and hop in and out of fullscreen views at any time.
Unlike Picture-in-Picture or other multi-view technology that handles processing locally, YouTube TV does all of the heavy lifting on its end and simply sends the broadcasts to your device as "one" stream. This makes the feature more accessible as you don't need a powerful set-top box or top-of-the-line Smart TV to drive the experience.
Still, there were some shortcomings. Namely, viewers could only choose from pre-selected multiview groupings that YouTube TV curated.
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– YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) June 21, 2023
Starting today in the Home tab, a small portion of members will see us testing up to 5 brand new multiview streams that will be available to watch 24/7 across news, sports, business news, weather, and Deportes. pic.twitter.com/wYDPjWWmDz
Starting today, YouTube TV is adding five new multiview streams to the mix. Now, you'll have access to news, sports, business news, weather, and Deportes. Frustratingly enough, it is all still bundled together with no option to customize the streams. So, you can watch four news streams at once but you seemingly can't choose which news channels are shown, nor can you mix a news stream with a weather stream.
YouTube TV got a pass when the feature first started rolling out in early access. It was new, and they were still testing it. Several months later, you'd like to see a bit more flexibility in terms of customization. If streams stay grouped and locked down as they currently are, we're likely looking at a great feature that will never have the opportunity to soar.
With any luck, YouTube TV will get things sorted out by the end of the summer before college and pro football seasons start. Multiview would be a game-changer on Saturdays when there are several college football games on that I want to watch at once, plus UFC fights. Who knows, I may finally be able to move that second television out of the bedroom.
