SAN BRUNO, Calif.—YouTube TV has announced a number of significant improvements to its service, including the launch of a $20 a month 4K Plus tier, the imminent rollout of 5.1 surround sound and some new features for watching live sports.
“4K Plus will bring some of the most highly requested features to YouTube TV, including the ability to watch 4K content on YouTube TV for the first time,” noted Kathryn Smith product manager, YouTube TV in a blog post announcing the new services and features. “With a compatible 4K enabled TV and/or streaming device, you can enjoy watching content in one of the best, most crisp resolutions.”
The new 4K Plus service also allows subscribers to download shows to watch offline and gives subscribers unlimited streams, up from three on the current base package.
Smith also noted that 5.1 Dolby audio capabilities, which have “been one of [the] biggest requests” from users, will start rolling out “to select devices over the coming weeks, so you can soon watch movies as if you were in the theater, and enhance your watch experience even more with surround-sound audio.”
Improving the experience of watching live sports has also been a major focus at the service, Smith said.
She noted that “last year, we introduced a new feature that allows you to jump to various segments within news programs on YouTube TV, and are excited to bring this to sports this year. Similar to our key plays view, for some events you’ll be able to jump to specific moments while you catch up live or when watching a DVR recording. That means if you’re looking to catch up on the tennis women’s singles event, you can get right into the action.”
In addition, YouTube TV has added a feature that lets users search for any sport to add to your DVR and it recently added the key plays feature directly to search on mobile. “If you want to find all the 3-pointers in your library, you can find them with one click,” she said.
Finally, it has added a medal count view for Olympics coverage.
