[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong] YouTube TV has introduced a customizable multiview feature that lets users combine the channels they want.

On April 28, local time, IT media outlet The Verge reported that YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan said YouTube TV would apply fully customizable multiview.

The key feature is that users can select multiple live channels and arrange them on a single screen. Mohan said users can freely mix and configure live streams and create the personalized viewing experience they have long requested. Users can pin up to 4 streams in the multiview window.

YouTube TV’s multiview was not fully open from the start. In 2023, YouTube first introduced a preconfigured multiview so viewers could watch sports content such as March Madness, a U.S. college basketball tournament, across multiple screens. It later expanded to news, business and weather, but users could still only choose within combinations set by YouTube.

Last year, YouTube also ran an experiment that allowed users to create multiview for some non-sports content. Mohan had said in January that customizable multiview would be provided soon to YouTube TV subscribers, and this announcement moves that plan into the service phase.

It will not apply only to YouTube TV base subscribers. YouTube spokesperson Allison Toh said the feature will be available not only to YouTube TV subscribers but also to subscribers to more than 10 genre-based packages. That confirms a trend in which multiview, which started as a sports-focused feature, is expanding into a basic viewing tool aimed at a broader audience.

The change is significant because YouTube TV is changing its service structure toward a more personalized live bundle viewing experience. Previously, it was limited to showing programming combinations set by the platform. Now users can design the screen themselves around channels they are interested in. YouTube also emphasized full customization and direct combination.

Meanwhile, the details released in this announcement focused on greater flexibility in multiview combinations and an expansion of supported users. YouTube said users can place up to 4 streams on a single screen and that customizable multiview will expand across YouTube TV and genre-based packages. That means YouTube TV’s multiview will establish itself as a viewing feature spanning live broadcasts overall rather than a sports auxiliary feature.