YouTube's TV App Gets Facelift

YouTube updated its design for TVs, aiming to make it easier to watch when you're sitting back on a couch with a remote in your hand.

The new looks adds carousels based on 12 categories that people like to browse -- news, gaming, sports, beauty, travel, tech and so on. The redesign also adds more recommendations.

YouTube is the most-watched video site on the planet. Most of that watching is on mobile devices, but viewing on televisions make YouTube a bigger threat to traditional programming by filling the role of TV show replacement rather than on-the-go supplement.

Consumer research and internal tests among employees, YouTube said, found that the amount of watching went up with the new kind of browsing. Past versions leaned more on letter-by-letter searches for the content.

The new design starts in the US and then will be rolled out globally where YouTube already has an app. It will be on most smart TVs by major manufacturers, streaming boxes like Roku and gaming consoles like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation. Apple TV is an exception; the new design won't show up on Apple's over-the-top streaming box.