X Launches New TV App to Compete with YouTube: Revolutionizing Smart TV Viewing with Exclusive Content and Innovative Features

Fortune reported that Elon Musk’s X plans to launch a television app for Amazon and Samsung smart televisions next week, citing an unidentified person working at the social media company.

In a move that could shake up the digital landscape, a source close to X has revealed that the app is set to unveil a new interface strikingly similar to YouTube’s TV experience. The aim? To captivate users with longer videos on larger screens, as X continues its transformation into a “video-first platform.”

Behind the scenes, X has been busy courting high-profile video creators and media personalities. Recent examples include a lucrative deal with former CNN anchor Don Lemon for an exclusive show and popular YouTuber MrBeast raking in over $250,000 from his first X video.

X has also flirted with personalities who have been demonetized or suspended from other social apps. These users are bringing engagement and impressions, but whether or not advertisers will stomach them is yet to be seen.

However, challenging YouTube’s colossal smart TV presence won’t be a walk in the park. As of January, YouTube accounted for 8.6% of total TV viewing in the U.S., according to Nielsen. A staggering 45% of YouTube’s U.S. viewership came from TVs in 2023, per The Information.

There is a lot of potential though for short-form (or in this case long-form?) content. X plans to release long-form videos on the Smart TV application. Most likely this means videos at least 30 seconds long, which would be relatively in-line with YouTube Shorts and TikTok.

• On a daily basis, people around the world collectively spend over 1 billion hours watching YouTube content on their television sets. Additionally, the count of leading creators who garner most of their viewing hours on TVs has surged by over 400%. Furthermore, between January and September 2023, the viewership of YouTube Shorts on connected TVs has experienced a growth exceeding 100%.
• On YouTube’s Blog, Creator, Kinigra Deon, shared that over 70% of her viewership came from connected TVs in 2023. “I think the perception of content creators is changing,” says Kinigra. “Starting out on YouTube, low production three minute sketches couldn’t be compared to television. It was more about being viral than being a true creative. Let’s go to now. The YouTubers I see now have professional cameras, entire studios and they’re creating this fan base with high quality content. We’re different from Hollywood, because we have the quality and we also have a personal relationship with our audience.”

Musk remains determined to take on YouTube (he has also often criticized YouTube and parent company Google for their woke / anti-free speech censorship policies). Musk also likely views TikTok, Substack, Telegram, Twitch, Signal, and Reddit as additional competitors on his radar. A final competitor that I think that people do not seriously consider for X? LinkedIn. LinkedIn has or is integrating all the features related to articles, video content, and hiring that X is pursuing. The standard for creators is whether X can capitalize on offering LinkedIn’s experiences with less blatant cringe is yet to be seen. The standard for job applicants is… well rather obvious… whoever lands them the job? X Hiring is a good start, but just blatantly Copying & Pasting services from other apps will only go so far. Hopefully, the the X Smart TV app has a good UI and has good cross-app experiences with the mobile and desktop sites.

The key question remains: Can X’s tempting monetization offers for creators be enough to make a dent in YouTube’s stronghold on premium long-form video across devices?

Beyond smart TVs, X has also explored expanding into video games, podcasts, and long-form writing as it strives to become the ultimate “everything app.”

Elon Musk also added: