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Published Jan 26, 2026, 7:15 PM EST
Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a New York–based journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, where she contributes as a Live Blog Editor, and The U.S. Sun, where she previously served as a Senior Consumer Reporter.
She specializes in network television coverage, delivering sharp, thoughtful analysis of long-running procedural hits and ambitious new dramas across broadcast TV. At Collider, Amanda explores character arcs, storytelling trends, and the cultural impact of network series that keep audiences tuning in week after week.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is bilingual and holds a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies from the University of New Haven.
YouTube TV, a service owned by Google, aims to change public perception in 2022, following the past 12 months, which have been riddled with rising prices and ongoing issues with carrier agreements. Last year, YouTube TV did its best to mitigate consumer discontent stemming from both the $ 10-per-month increase and disruptions to Disney properties. Now, YouTube TV appears ready to move forward — and it’s doing so by finally delivering two long-requested upgrades that could meaningfully change how subscribers use the service.
The updates were outlined in YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s annual letter, where he framed YouTube TV’s next phaseYouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s annual letter around a simple goal: giving users more control. While the announcements were relatively brief, the implications are anything but small.
Fully Customizable Multiview Is Finally Coming to YouTube TV
Image via ShutterstockWhile YouTube TV's Multiview feature has been a key differentiator for the platform, particularly for sports fans who want to follow several sporting events simultaneously, the Multiview limitation has been that users could only select from preset channel combinations created by the service itself. That restriction is finally going away.
According to Mohan, YouTube TV will soon roll out fully customizable Multiview, allowing subscribers to choose exactly which channels appear on-screen at the same time. Instead of being locked into curated layouts, users will be able to mix and match content — whether that’s four live sporting events, or a football game paired with the news, a sitcom, and a financial channel.
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This update builds on the improvements YouTube TV quietly made late last year in response to subscriber complaints. Previously, Multiview featured a persistent border and audio icon highlighting the active feed, which many users found distracting. That indicator now fades out after a moment and only reappears when audio is changed, making the overall viewing experience cleaner.
The upcoming customization takes things a step further by removing one of the last barriers to Multiview’s full potential. With competing live TV streamers still struggling to offer flexible multi-screen viewing, YouTube TV is positioning Multiview as a genuine advantage rather than a novelty feature.
YouTube TV’s New Genre-Based Plans Explained
Image via ShutterstockThe second major update teased by Mohan may have even bigger long-term implications: more than 10 new genre-based YouTube TV plans are set to launch in early 2026.
Right now, YouTube TV offers a single base plan priced at $83 per month — a structure that has increasingly drawn criticism as prices climb and subscribers feel they’re paying for channels they never watch. The new plans are designed to address that exact problem by breaking the service into focused packages centered around specific interests.
While full details haven’t been revealed yet, YouTube has already confirmed several key points. One of the new offerings will be a sports-focused plan, which is expected to include channels like FS1, NBC Sports Network, and the full suite of ESPN networks, along with ESPN Unlimited and access to major broadcast sports coverage.
Additional plans centered on news, family, and entertainment programming are also in development. YouTube has also indicated that subscribers will be able to combine certain plans — such as sports and news — though exactly how that system will work remains unclear.
What’s still missing is the most important detail: pricing. The pricing for the genre-based plans on YouTube has yet to be revealed, and how they would stack against the traditional $83 monthly plans. While YouTube appears to be keeping the pricing of these genre-based plans under wraps until they roll them out in early 2026, it shouldn't be long before the pricing information is released.
Why These YouTube TV Updates Matter After a Rough Year
Image via ShutterstockCollectively, these two alterations are evidence that YouTube TV is considering how users use its service, rather than just reacting to the latest trends in the video distribution industry. Given almost 10 million paying customers and increased competition from both traditional cable and streaming services, flexibility has shifted from a benefit to an expected necessity.
Consumers who stream video are much more inclined to want to watch several simultaneous live sporting events than consumers in the past. Streaming services respond to this demand for multiview customisation as well as to an increased demand from many households for subscription plans that include specific content types (based on their interests); hence, the introduction of genre-based subscription plans. As such, genre-based subscription plans will also allow consumers to choose only those channels they wish from each genre, therefore rendering all other channels in that genre irrelevant to them.
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