San Francisco— Boob Tube watchers can now enjoy watching YouTube right in your living room on your big-screen television. YouTube on Thursday introduced YouTube for Television, a section of the site with a new user interface designed for easier viewing on TV screens.
YouTube announced that it has with Sony and Nintendo to place YouTube for Television (http://www.youtube.com/tv) — a link only accessible via a game console through the PlayStation 3 and Wii, respectively.
Currently in beta, the YouTube for Television site lets Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 users watch and share YouTube videos on any television screen.
YouTube for Television offers “a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch, and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control,” YouTube explained in a blog post. YouTube plans to add support for more television devices, including Web browsers, and may include devices like the Xbox 360.
“With enlarged text and simplified navigation, it makes watching YouTube on your TV as easy and intuitive as possible.”
The Web site is available globally in 22 localized sites and in more than 12 languages, according to the company. A specific date for a full launch has not been set, according to YouTube.
“If I go to the standard YouTube Web site, there are a lot of hyperlinks and text, and it is intuitive to navigate on the computer, but when you put it on a TV, it is hard to navigate with a remote control because of the hyperlinks,” said Chris Dale, a YouTube spokesperson.
Product managers want users to surf the Web site with ease, so they added buttons that are chunky and text that is big, Dale said. The site also features arrow-key navigation that allows the user to browse all the available videos rather than typing in text on the traditional YouTube site.
“You can also enable the auto-play function, which mirrors the TV experience that continuously plays one video after another,” Dale said.
YouTube began its migration from the computer in the office to the TV in the living room in June 2007 via Apple TV. Other device makers like Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic, TiVo, and Verismo soon followed Apple’s lead, aided by the addition of new APIs for partners and external developers in March 2008.
YouTube’s aim in providing APIs for developers is “YouTube on any screen, any time,” as the company puts it.
Bloggers, however, are expressing disappointment that the Web site is not available for other gaming consoles, especially Microsoft’s Xbox 360. But YouTube’s Dale said it is just a first step and there are “absolutely no exclusivity deals.”
“Ultimately, we want to have the TV Web site available on other gaming consoles but ubiquitous,” he said. “Our real goal is to give the consumer what he or she wants.”
A YouTube spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to provide statistics detailing the number of people viewing YouTube through televisions and other non-PC hardware.