YouTube focuses on TV-style channels in revamp

The video-sharing site YouTube has unveiled a major redesign in which it has reorganised around TV-style "channels".

The new design, which launched last night, features a side panel with various channels tailored to the interests of the user. It also has integration with social-networking sites such as Google+ and Facebook, and features Arabic support.

Shiva Rajaraman, product manager at YouTube, said that the new design made channels "much more discoverable".

"We're redesigning YouTube around channels," he told The National in a phone interview.

Such channels could be around themes such as music, a specific video provider such as the BBC, or created via social networks.

Mr Rajaraman said that the service would be a complement to, rather than replace TV.

He confirmed that the relaunch would also support Arabic. YouTube first launched its Arabic-language interface last year.

Gulf residents are world's heaviest users of YouTube, with at least 120 million videos viewed a day in the wider Mena region.

Users in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have the highest per-capita consumption of YouTube videos in the world, a senior executive at Google, which acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, said earlier this year.