Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube is rolling out a slate of new features to help enhance the viewing experience for subscribers of its NFL Sunday Ticket package.
Among the new features is an improvement to the “Fantasy View” perk that debuted four years ago, which allows football fans to track their fantasy teams through a dedicated menu that sits alongside live or replay video on the same screen.
This year, YouTube and YouTube TV will support Yahoo! Fantasy accounts, in addition to the NFL Fantasy app that was already supported, the company says. Fantasy View is available on YouTube TV across platforms, including phones and smart TVs, though users will need to link their NFL Fantasy or Yahoo! Fantasy account to YouTube TV using the mobile app.
Starting later this year, YouTube says fantasy football fans with a connected NFL Fantasy or Yahoo! Fantasy account will get even more viewing enhancements, such as key plays that are tailored to their fantasy teams and multiview combinations that help them stay on top of all the action.
Speaking of multiview, one of the biggest pain points for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers on YouTube and YouTube TV was the lack of customized multiview options — on both platforms, YouTube simply offered a handful of selections, curating what the service felt would be the most-sought out concurrent games.
This year, things will be different, with YouTube promising highly-customized multiview windows for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers on both YouTube and YouTube TV. A preview clip showed the ability to select among different in-progress games, and build a content feed that offers two, three or four games at once.
That feature is also coming to subscribers of YouTube TV’s base service — those without NFL Sunday Ticket — though customers will only be able to set up multiview windows for their local CBS and Fox affiliates. Multiview is available through YouTube TV on smart TVs, tablets and phones.
YouTube said the new features join a handful of others that have rolled out over the past few months, including “spoiler mode,” which allows sports fans to hide scores for in-progress or completed games until after they’ve caught up to the action. YouTube TV also introduced a “broadcast delay” feature that reduces latency across some channels for subscribers with certain Internet connections, and a “jump to last channel” shortcut that allows viewers to quickly jump between their current and last-viewed channel.
YouTube TV costs $73 per month and is available across all major smart TV and mobile platforms. NFL Sunday Ticket costs $380 per season when purchased through YouTube TV, or $480 per season when purchased as a standalone option through YouTube’s Primetime Channels marketplace.
