In a rather quiet event held at Los Angeles (livestreamed to offices in New York and San Francisco) today, YouTube unveiled YouTube Red, a $9.99 paid monthly subscription service for YouTube, which gives you an ad-free video streaming experience across world’s biggest video platform.
As per Google’s announcement today, starting October 28, YouTube will offer its viewers a $9.99 paid subscription service for access to ad-free videos. The service wouldn’t exactly come as a surprise, considering that rumours regarding the same have been coming up ever since an internal letter to marketers leaked out in the media, earlier in April.
However, a subscription based service isn’t the only thing where Google is heading to. Infact, Youtube Red is just the beginning to a more Netflix-like YouTube wherein the company is planning to offer more of original content — in the form of web shows and other series.
For starters, YouTube Originals — the Netflix-like service I just talked about above — is coming up with three original shows in January, which include ‘A Trip to Unicorn Island,’ which documents comedian/rapper Lily Singh’s world tour; ‘Sing it’, a fictional singing competition featuring Benny and Raphi Fine (of Fine Brothers fame); and ‘Scare PewDiePie,’ my personal favourite and perhaps the most sight after reality show wherein contestants would be tasked of freaking out host Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (PewDiePie). YouTube has in fact roped in makers of the insanely popular “The Walking Dead” to create this show.
YouTube Red will also launch a movie called Laser Team, which is a comical space adventure movie, being produced by studio Rooster Teeth. More content will arrive come 2016, promised the YouTube team.
Youtube Red however, isn’t Youtube’s first time at subscription model. If you had subscribed or you’d just remember, Youtube had earlier launched YouTube Music Key, a service that offers users ad-free songs and music videos for $8 a month. It was in Beta until September 15 of this year.
