YouTube‘s first season with NFL Sunday Ticket is leading to big changes in how the streaming giant plans to stream this year’s Coachella music festival, which will kick off on April 12 at 4 p.m. PST.
YouTube will be streaming the festival for the 12th year, but in a big change, it will bring “Multiview” to its streams, letting users watch up to four different Coachella stages at the same time on their connected TV sets (YouTube will stream six stages total).
“This year after multiview became a critical part of the NFL Sunday Ticket experience, we knew how valuable it could be if applied to the Coachella viewing experience,” says Ali Rivera, who leads YouTube’s live music and artist partnerships business.
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YouTube has made live events a strategic priority, with its multi-billion dollar bet on Sunday Ticket a big part of that, but Rivera frames it as a larger flywheel at play.
“Bringing multiview to Coachella is a great example of how our work on NFL Sunday Ticket will benefit all users across YouTube,” Rivera says. “The feature was first launched on YouTube TV for March Madness last year, in anticipation of our first season of NFL Sunday Ticket. And now, we’re making multiview available to a global audience across YouTube, bringing fans into the Coachella experience wherever they are.”
“These types of partnerships enable us to deliver unique live experiences, tapping into our existing ecosystem of YouTube creators for on the ground coverage and delivering a compelling viewer experience by taking many of the features and interactivity that people love about YouTube and bringing it to both sports and music fans,” she continued.
YouTube will be adding other functionality to its Coachella experience too, with the ability to swap audio between stages in multiview, live chats with other fans, and QR codes for easy merchandise purchases.
“We’ll be capturing exclusive behind the scenes content on YouTube Shorts and for the first time, Highsnobiety will be partnering with us on site to capture backstage portraits of Artists and Creators,” Rivera adds.
And just as with Sunday Ticket, YouTube’s Coachella product will place a special emphasis on the big living room TV experience.
“Today, we’re seeing that viewers are watching content in new ways and interestingly, YouTube watchtime on connected TVs has grown to over 1 billion hours daily,” Rivera says. “While the living room has traditionally been a ‘lean back’ experience, we’re seeing that when a viewer is excited about the content, they lean in. This is why we’re incorporating features like Shopping and Live Chat, so fans can engage more deeply with Coachella no matter where they are, on what device.”
