Hi there! My name is Janko Roettgers, and this is Lowpass. This week: YouTube’s evolution on the TV, and Spotify’s missing Vega OS app.

YouTube is the new TV. Now, it also wants to look like it

The YouTube app on your TV is about to undergo some massive changes, to the point where you might confuse it with Netflix, or any other paid streaming service, at first glance.

Instead of getting overwhelmed by a long, chaotic list of thumbnails as soon as you open the app, you’ll soon be greeted by massive banner images teasing the latest episodes of your favorite channels, ready for you to flick through. Those images, which are also at the top of individual channel pages, will look a lot crisper, thanks to YouTube bumping up its upload limits for thumbnails for the first time in a decade.

And, perhaps most significantly, a growing number of channels will feature shows in a more familiar format. Videos will be organized by seasons and episodes, ready to be binge-watched, just like on Netflix. “When viewers watch [this] content, they'll go episode to episode based on how it's organized,” explains YouTube senior director of product management Kurt Wilms. “When they turn on the TV a day later, they can continue right where they left off in the show.”

It’s all part of a move by YouTube to live up to viewers’ expectations on the big screen: Over the past few years, the service has seen massive growth of living room usage, to the point where people now watch over a billion hours’ worth of YouTube videos on TV every single day, and YouTube accounts for 12.6 percent of all TV viewing in the United States — about as much as Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus combined.

In other words: YouTube has become the new TV. Now, it also wants to look like it.

It’s all just TV shows

The rollout of shows across YouTube channels has been a long time coming: First announced a little over a year ago, the feature was initially developed several years back when YouTube began working on a channel store for third-party video services on its platform. Bringing that type of subscription content directly into the YouTube app required listing individual TV shows with complete seasons on its platform.

“Shows was born out of what we call Primetime Channels,” Wilms explains. “We made big, beautiful show pages for our Primetime Channel content. When we were building that and originally rolling it out, we realized: Creators would love this feature too.”

At the core of the decision to expand shows to creators was the realization that the lines between professional and user-generated content were increasingly getting blurry. “For us, it's no different if you're a White Lotus or you're Michelle Khare with Challenge Accepted. The content is the same. The way you can consume it is the same. We see our viewers bouncing between both.”

With viewers increasingly watching their videos on TV, YouTube has also seen creators adapt and expand beyond short, viral clips. “They're moving towards more episodic, cinematic content,” Wilms says. “Great storytelling. Arcs that continue, video after video.” And, one might add, higher-resolution videos, with 4K uploads up 35 percent year over year.