YouTube is pushing to make television viewing more interactive as the share of its content watched on TV screens continues to climb, with new job listings pointing to a broad expansion of its living-room product strategy.
Connected TVs now account for more than 44% of YouTube's total watch time in the United States, up from around 41% in 2022, according to data from eMarketer, the market research firm, shared with TechCrunch.
The Google-owned platform has posted a wave of roles spanning product, design and engineering in the US and India, with a particular focus on live streaming, Shorts on TV, and subscription features.
Shorts are YouTube's short-form vertical video format, originally designed for mobile, and the company is now working to make them more interactive and community-driven when viewed on television screens.
Job listings reference features including live chat, gifting tools, and multi-device controls for live viewing, alongside plans to build out a dedicated YouTube Live engineering hub in Bengaluru focused on modernising live streaming for television.
The push is accompanied by a series of product launches, including AI-powered voice search on TVs, a second-screen companion feature that lets viewers interact with content using their phones, and Stations, a format delivering round-the-clock linear streams.
YouTube also struck a deal last month with FIFA to offer what it described as an immersive viewing experience for the 2026 World Cup across devices.
The platform now accounts for 12.5% of all television viewing in the US, a figure that underlines its growing rivalry with traditional broadcasters and subscription streaming services.
However, analysts caution that making TV screens genuinely interactive remains difficult.
Ross Benes, a senior analyst for TV and streaming at eMarketer, told TechCrunch that viewers do not engage with television the way they do with mobile devices, describing the experience as clunky.
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He added that interactive features on TV have so far remained niche, limiting their influence on broader viewing habits.
Benes nonetheless suggested YouTube's unique positioning could work in its favour as it experiments with new formats, describing the platform as occupying its own category rather than competing within an established one.
