Maximize your reach: 5 tips for YouTube success on TV
Nov 27, 2024 – [[read-time]] minute read
Your audience is watching on TV – are your videos ready? With over a billion hours of YouTube content watched on TVs daily, creators have a huge opportunity to reach this expanding audience. That’s why we’re bringing you five tips to help get your content onto the big screen!
1. Get to know your TV audience
To start, you’re going to want to understand how your videos are currently performing with TV-viewing audiences. Head to YouTube Analytics on your computer, go to Advanced Mode, and filter by Device Type to see your TV watch time and views. You can even track your count of new subscribers from TV who found you while browsing your channel page, while watching your long-form videos or while scrolling through your Shorts content.
Try this: In addition to looking at your TV watch time and views, check out “average view duration.” We tend to see viewers watch for longer sessions on TV compared to other devices.
2. Make your content look great on the "Big Screen"
Viewers choose to watch YouTube on TV for its picture quality, and with more 4K TVs in homes, uploading in 4K ensures your content looks its absolute best. Good lighting during filming and consistent color grading while editing can help create a polished, professional look that keeps your viewers immersed.
3. Grab your viewers’ attention with high resolution thumbnails
Think of your thumbnails as movie posters! On TV screens, they're supersized, front and center, so make them count. Use high-resolution images (1280x720 or higher) and keep your designs clean, balanced and easy to read.
Looking to learn more? Check out this thumbnail deep dive with MrBeast’s Chucky and YouTube algorithm expert, Todd Beaupré.
4. Lean into episodic content
Babish Culinary Universe, First We Feast, Kinigra Deon — these shows thrive on TV thanks to their engaging episodic formats. If you want to really hook your TV audience, try building your channel around familiar frameworks, recurring themes, or beloved characters. Viewers find comfort and anticipation in knowing what to expect while still enjoying the fresh content that keeps them coming back for more.
Try this: Organize your episodes into playlists for seamless binge-watching. Be sure to give your playlist a title and use a clear and consistent format for each episode like: 'Episode Title | Show Name'.
5. Optimize your channel page
Your channel page is home for all things “you” on YouTube. Remember, less is often more on the big screen. Choose a clean design that's easy to see from afar and upload a high-resolution image (2560 x 1440 pixels, 6MB max)
And if you have the “For you” mix enabled, fullscreen background previews will play in place of the banner image to bring a more cinematic feel to the biggest screens in your home!
Try this: To make sure your channel looks its best on TV, preview your banner and layout on an actual television. This helps you catch any issues with image scaling or text readability.
