YouTube has seen huge growth with Connected TV (CTV) viewing – or watching on your home TV set. At the same time, YouTube has also experienced rapid growth with its Shorts content format. It’s not surprising that now, YouTube will pair CTV and Shorts. This will allow users to experience Shorts in a full-screen, interactive format on your TV set.
“It was important that the Shorts experience on TV felt consistent with what the community sees on mobile and also natural on the bigger screen.”
In the picture above, it seems Shorts will be displayed similarly to how they are displayed on your phone, while users will be able to interact with Shorts via their TV remote. How is this any different from, say, connecting your computer or mobile device to your TV via an HDMI cord? Or, using a system that allows you to access YouTube directly from your TV (like a smart TV)? It’s unclear to us so far.
One advantage of combining CTV and Shorts presumably is that more people can view a post at one time like traditional TV viewing. The rising popularity of CTV is an important trend for businesses to take note of as the costs differ from traditional TV. The digital nature of CTV also allows for more precise audience targeting. And with YouTube also adding ads in Shorts, this is definitely something for advertisers and content creators to consider when assessing how to better engage audiences.
