Linked TV is the quickest rising viewer phase for YouTube, with an increasing number of individuals now trying to eat YouTube content material on their house TV set.
That presents a novel alternative for creators and advertisers to align with extra conventional, and extra embedded viewer engagement processes – however with the intention to profit from the larger display screen format, you should contemplate how your content material seems to TV viewers, and what you are able to do to optimize for it.
And this week, YouTube has offered some new recommendations on precisely that, with YouTube’s Creator Insider channel outlining 5 key notes to contemplate when creating content material with Linked TV viewing in thoughts.
First off, YouTube says that try to be trying to add your content material in 4k.
“TVs are a good way to indicate each pixel of your greatest content material. YouTube is the one platform that may ingest the newest high-end manufacturing high quality sources and TVs are sometimes the one surfaces that may reliably play them precisely.”
YouTube says that the newest TVs are able to streaming content material in 4K, 8K and HDR, so taping into this, the place doable must be a key consideration.
“For creators which have invested in high-end tools, TVs are the very best place for his or her viewers to look at and expertise the movies because the creator meant.”
After all, not each channel goes to see a excessive share of Linked TV viewership, however you’ll be able to take a look at how many individuals are watching your clips on TV units in your YouTube Studio superior analytics.

YouTube additionally says that creators ought to add excessive decision thumbnails for his or her movies, as thumbnails will seem a lot bigger on bigger TV screens.
YouTube additionally advises that creators ought to attempt to hook viewers with the primary 10 to 30 seconds of their add, with the intention to capitalize on inline preview (the autoplay preview when a person hovers over the thumbnail), which can assist to maximise curiosity.
YouTube additionally says that creators ought to attempt to make episodic content material, and mark their episodes inside the playlist settings.
“Video titles ought to lead with the episode title and the collection identify as a suffix – for instance ‘video title’ [series name]”
That, once more, leans into extra conventional TV viewing habits, and can assist customers perceive that every episode is part of an even bigger set, that they’ll eat within the app.
Lastly, YouTube additionally advises that thumbnails ought to have constant look whereas additionally speaking with every particular episode is about.

Once more, this all hyperlinks again to embedded, recurring viewing behaviors on TV, with YouTube trying to higher align creators with these processes, with the intention to drive extra curiosity.
These are some helpful suggestions, and it’s price contemplating how individuals are consuming your content material, and how one can optimize your channel presentation for various codecs.