Channel surfing, back again

You open YouTube to relax. A Short looks interesting, so you tap it. Thirty minutes later you've seen every celebrity feud of the week and you're more tired than when you started.

Old TV had one big advantage: something was already on. You didn't pick a video, you picked a channel. When it got boring you flipped, and eventually you settled into a documentary you'd never have searched for. Less choice, more watching.

• Every channel plays on a schedule. Tune in and you join whatever is on, mid-program.
• Flip with the up and down arrows, or type a channel number like a remote.
• Press S to shuffle to a random channel, and L to jump back to the last one.
• Open the guide to see what's on now and next across every channel.

Videos are full length: full tennis matches, full chess rounds, full documentaries. That's the difference from YouTube autoplay or a random YouTube video button. You land on something worth staying for.

"What should I watch tonight?" is a surprisingly tiring question. Channel surfing answers it for you. Turn on Docs, flip to Tennis, wander over to Chess. Within a minute or two, something sticks.

It also makes good background TV. A long match or a slow nature documentary is easy company while you cook or fold laundry, and nothing ends after 40 seconds asking for your next tap.

The guide, the channel numbers and the flip are pure nostalgia TV. The channels themselves are new: they're built from creators who make long-form videos on YouTube, and they refresh as those creators post. See all 15 on the free channels page.

Want to channel surf through your own interests instead of ours? Build your lineup in about a minute and AI makes channels out of what you actually like.