YouTube TV has become a popular service among cord cutters because its user interface resembles what cable and satellite users are accustomed to. The convenience of the platform can be easy to integrate, especially for those who have favorite channels and content from traditional cable providers. And while installing old viewing routines is pretty intuitive with YouTube TV, there are many reasons why you should purchase a YouTube TV subscription.
Access to live and local channels and unlimited DVR storage are a few features that most people are familiar with. But there are many others that set YouTube TV apart from cable and satellite providers, as well as other streaming services. There are several ways to personalize the content experience, for example, as well as some features that ensure you won’t inadvertently receive spoilers when watching sports games recorded on your DVR.
Plus, some big changes have been coming to YouTube TV recently, and they’re affecting everything from subscription plans to access to content, making YouTube TV more interesting than in the past. The breadth of what it offers means that there is a lot that is easily overlooked. But we know the service inside out and have identified some things you might not know YouTube TV can do. They can expand the way you use the service and may even be enough to move some non-subscribers to the platform.
Customizing the channel guide
YouTube TV’s live channel guide shows all channels in the lineup by default, which can quickly become tedious. In most cases, the lineup offers far more channels than anyone will actually watch. Scrolling through dozens of channels you never intend to watch while trying to find the channels you want to watch can be frustrating. Most subscribers accept it as part of the TV experience, but YouTube TV offers a simple solution.
With YouTube TV, subscribers can completely customize their live channel guide. You can rearrange channels using drag and drop, pinning favorites to the top of the guide and hiding channels you don’t intend to watch. The personalized guide is accessible through your account settings menu and syncs across devices once configured. This means you can watch YouTube TV the same way on your tablet as you do on your Smart TV.
This will likely be a remarkable discovery for those who tend to scroll through the same channels over and over again. But it’s also a handy feature for those who just want to explore more channels. Because it’s so easy to rearrange channels at any time, you can take advantage of this feature to organize channels together that have commonalities. Favorites can be placed at the top, while lesser-known channels you want to familiarize yourself with can be grouped below.
Full access on demand
Most YouTube TV subscribers probably know that it comes with unlimited cloud DVR space. Recording your favorite movies and TV shows on the DVR is a way to access video content on demand and essentially gives you the ability to manage your own content library. But YouTube TV also provides access to many on-demand movies and TV shows that don’t require registration to watch.
YouTube TV partners with major networks like Fox, CBS, Food Network, FX, Cartoon Network and others to give subscribers immediate, free access to all kinds of content. Recent episodes of popular TV shows are often added to the library after they air, and movies are added and removed from the library on demand from time to time. Using on-demand content in this way can be useful if you forget to save something.
One problem with YouTube TV’s on-demand content is that it’s not organized into a library or dedicated browsing section. This makes it more difficult to explore than streaming services like Netflix or even Pluto TV, because YouTube TV’s on-demand content must be accessed through individual channel pages, through recommended content on your home page, or through the Personal Library tab once you’ve saved some movies or TV episodes you want to watch.
Suspend a subscription
YouTube TV introduced new streaming plans this year, creating a range of prices for subscribers of all budgets. But no matter which plan you choose, there will be periods when the service is expensive or not used very often. Travel, busy work periods, or periods of disinterest in the entertainment calendar can all lead to a month or two where a YouTube TV subscription doesn’t fit into your life.
Many subscribers will simply continue paying for the service or cancel it altogether, not realizing that there is a third option. YouTube TV allows subscribers to pause a subscription for up to six months at a time. No recorded DVR content will be lost and account settings will remain the same when your subscription starts again. No fees will be charged during the pause period and when your subscription resumes, that day of the month will become your new billing day.
One thing to note here is that you will not be able to record movies or TV shows to your DVR while your account is paused. If you’re in a situation where you just don’t want to watch a lot of TV but want to catch up later, pausing your subscription won’t be the right solution. But for those who would like to step away from YouTube TV for a while, pausing your subscription will allow you to come back to it whenever you’re ready.
Prevent sports spoilers
If access to sports games is what brought you to YouTube TV, you may be well aware of the exact problem this next feature solves. Anyone who has recorded a match because they were unable to watch it live knows how much effort it takes to avoid learning the outcome of the match before having a chance to watch it. Staying off social media can help avoid spoilers, as can avoiding sports conversations with friends for a few days.
But that still leaves the possibility of the score popping up while watching TV. YouTube TV, however, has a built-in feature that hides sports scores, keeping the results of your recorded games out of sight while you watch other shows and movies. The setting can be applied to teams, entire sports, or individual leagues. It syncs across devices, so you don’t accidentally stumble across scores when you switch from one device to another.
Scores may still appear in sports network tickers, as the functionality is not entirely perfect. YouTube TV isn’t able to blur or censor these scores, but it will remove final scores and live previews from your YouTube TV interface, which includes your Home tab, Library, and Team Pages. This can be an incredibly useful feature that many sports fans using the service may not be aware of.
Simulcast
Recently released for YouTube TV, a powerful multi-view feature is available, and while it offers a customizable picture-in-picture experience for subscribers, we think it could be better. However, many users may not know that they can create a similar – and perhaps even better – experience by leveraging YouTube TV’s ability to play on multiple devices at once. YouTube TV’s base plan supports up to three simultaneous streams, meaning three different devices can all play at the same time.
There are many ways to use this advantage, one of which could be to create an ultimate viewing setup. With access to three streams at any time, subscribers can install multiple TVs in one room for a big-screen picture-in-picture experience. There’s also something much simpler at play, which involves using your smart TV or home theater setup as your primary viewing screen while keeping a phone or tablet nearby to check other content you want to watch.
While this setup is likely to appeal primarily to sports fans who want to keep up with games happening at the same time, families can also enjoy the ability to watch YouTube TV on three devices. Different age groups under one roof also result in different viewing tastes. Three people can stream three different things at once with YouTube TV’s standard subscription plan, or an upgrade to the 4K Plus plan provides access to unlimited simultaneous streams.
