YouTube TV split-screen viewing is set to arrive in time for NFL Sunday Ticket

Ben Schoon | Jan 1 2023 - 9:52 am PT

Google and YouTube secured the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket in a landmark deal in December, with games set to start airing in late 2023. Now, a YouTube TV exec has confirmed that the platform’s split-screen viewing experience should be ready in time for NFL Sunday Ticket.

In an interview with The Verge, YouTube TV’s Neal Mohan divulged a few key details about the service’s plans for 2023, including regarding NFL Sunday Ticket. One interesting tidbit shared was that YouTube TV is still working on a “multi-screen” experience for watching multiple games at once, the first time this has been explicitly confirmed by the company.

This feature was first reported back in August of this year alongside that YouTube Shorts would be coming to TV apps, the latter of which rolled out widely in November.

According to Mohan, offering split-screen viewing in YouTube TV will be a big perk of watching NFL Sunday Ticket on the service. The feature, also known as “Mosaic Mode,” is said to allow up to four live feeds to be viewed on-screen at once, and based on Mohan’s comments, it sounds like it will be a sports-exclusive feature, but it’s unclear if it will only be for NFL games.

There’s three specific things that I think make this unique in terms of the experience we can deliver to sports fans.

The first is that living room screens are our largest and fastest-growing screens — whether it’s the YouTube main app, whether it’s YouTube TV. We’ve invested a lot there through second-screen type experiences, interactivity, hiding spoilers, et cetera. We’re working on multiscreen as well for sports fans.

Mohan also explicitly said that this feature is expected to arrive alongside or at least in time for Sunday Ticket.

Multiscreen is something that we have been working on for YouTube TV. So you should expect that as part of the experience.

In the interview, Mohan also mentioned that these features are also coming to the main YouTube app which will be getting Sunday Ticket via Primetime Channels. He also explained that YouTube Premium won’t be required to get Sunday Ticket and that YouTube’s deal for Sunday Ticket is only for the rights for residential viewing – commercial establishments like restaurants won’t need to invest in new hardware to show games.

Mohan, unfortunately, couldn’t offer any details on whether or not YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket deal would offer 4K games.

NFL Sunday Ticket will be available on YouTube TV later in 2023 at the start of the next NFL season, with pricing estimated to cost around $300 per season, but that’s yet to be confirmed. Mohan did confirm in the interview, though, that the “Sunday Ticket package” would be a bundle.