YouTube Kids has turned two. And the penchant for original shows has finally reached this particular service as well. The company announced that YouTube Kids is launching four brand new shows as part of its drive to incorporate some original content into its platform.
Announcing the news, YouTube said:
Our Original Content team under Susanne Daniels is adding four new Original series to YouTube Red, created especially with the YouTube Kids app in mind.
The new shows include DanTDM , Joe and Cody of TheAtlanticCraft, music act L2M, and Fruit Ninja. The four new shows are actually part of the YouTube Red subscription service and mark the first time that Red has invested in the creation of original content.
Here is a short description of the four upcoming shows:
- Hyperlinked: This series is inspired by a true story and stars music sensation L2M. It follows five girls as they come together to create their own website by girls for girls. They also must navigate everyday tween issues involving friends and relationships.
- DanTDM Creates A Big Scene: Catch DanTDM and his lively group of animated friends as they battle mayhem and misadventure to keep their brand new live show on the road. Each episode follows their behind-the-scenes exploits as they learn new skills, overcome challenges and find that putting on an epic show isn’t quite as easy as it looks. …
- The Kings of Atlantis: “The Kings of Atlantis” is an epic animated series that follows two young monarchs —Cody and Joe— in the vast underwater city of Atlantis as they seek to overthrow the brutal usurper of their kingdom, reclaim their birthright, and protect their people from his cruel reign.
- Fruit Ninja: Frenzy Force: Four Fruit Ninjas set up a juice stand as a front for the messiest secret service in the world. The new Fruit Ninja characters—Seb, Niya, Peng and Ralph—come together to fight the evil forces of Durian Grey and the Deep Fried Sensei. They will use their Juice Jitsu skills (and perhaps some help from their own Sensei) to prevail.
Interestingly, Hyperlinked appears to be aimed more towards teens than kids. YouTube could well be aiming to broaden the focus of the Kids app to include pre-teens and teens as well.
YouTube also came up with some pretty interesting stats regarding its only-for-kids application. Since its launch two years ago, the app has managed to generate over 30 billion views. Most of the views came from kids and their parents, who found the YouTube Kids app to be a significantly safer alternative to the main app — thanks to the specifically curated content on the platform.
YouTube said that over 8 million active viewers log on and use the application every week — an impressive statistics for a two year old service aimed towards kids.
The company also announced that the YouTube Kids app was soon coming to Smart TVs. YouTube cited the fact that parents and kids often enjoyed watching family programs on a the big screen as opposed to smartphones and laptops to make this announcement.
The YouTube Kids app will be available soon for download on a number of Internet-connected LG and Samsung Smart TVs.
