By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – @tvanswerman
TV Answer Man, thank you for your story on YouTube’s Multiview for the NFL Sunday Ticket. I know you can’t pick the games in Multiview but my question is why can’t you? What’s the explanation here from YouTube and Google? — Bob, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Bob, YouTube’s Multiview, which displays up to four channels on one screen at the same time, is a popular but controversial feature. It’s controversial because the user can’t pick the four channels; they are pre-selected by YouTube. For instance, during the NFL Sunday Ticket, there are multiple Multiview options, but each one includes games chosen by the streamer. This is frustrating, particularly for fantasy football players who want to follow specific teams and players. They want the four games to include players on their fantasy teams.
Although YouTube’s first Sunday of providing the Ticket was widely regarded as a big success, the lack of customization for Multiview continues to be a sore spot with fans. So why doesn’t YouTube just add it? The company actually offers an explanation at its web site and it’s certainly a reasonable one:
“Our goal with Multiview is to make it available to everyone with a television. Since most devices don’t have the hardware to support Multiview, we have to do the processing of video feeds on our servers to make Multiview possible,” YouTube says. “This means that every unique combination watched in Multiview uses limited data center and computational resources. Because each region has unique, local content, we are especially constrained on the number of combinations we can create that include local feeds. We try to select the best combinations based on expected popularity and are always improving our processes.”
It sounds like Multiview customization is not coming soon. But at least we know why. YouTube is saying that most streaming devices and Smart TVs are simply not equipped to handle it.
Bob, hope that helps. Happy viewing and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
The worst part about the multi view is if one of the games your watching on another tv is in the multi view- the game on the multi view is ahead of the same standalone feed on a 2nd tv!!
I saw multiple plays in the multiview BEFORE I saw them appear on screen in the standalone broadcast- sometimes by 5-6 seconds.
Very annoying/irritating
Please stop complaining, you have access. We live in rural NV with inadequate streaming and no more Directv Sunday ticket from our satellite dish. No one has made provisions for a multitude of rural customers to get an NFL package as you have. Please enjoy what you have, Bo!
Sorry John. You tell someone to stop complaining then you complain. Pathetic.
So you think not having Sunday Ticket unless you add some very expensive satellite package just for stream quality internet is just a complaint. The 8 view, 4 view we had on Sunday ticket was fine along with the 4 simultaneous unbuffered channels. To give you an idea: Starlink costs about $120/mo +$600 up front for this this much stream. TMobile 25MB cellular isn’t even offered in our area because they don’t have the bandwidth. The LTE offerings here sometime drop to near dial up speeds off and on during congestion. We’ve had the Ticket since it was new and would be very happy to pay for a passthrough for the Ticket on DTV but greed seems to get in the way.
I had Directv and you couldn’t pick the teams in the multi game view so Youtube TV is fine with me. This one has a few more options for games viewable. The timing is a bit annoying with the NFL Redzone as Bo mentioned.
This is what you call 1st world problems, stop whining and enjoy the games. I remember the days of no Sunday Ticket and stuck with regional coverage.