Reaffirming previous talks of making the platform’s ‘Originals’ section available for free, Youtube’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl reiterated the company’s plans to take its Originals out of the paid section, and make them free.
Kyncl was speaking at Youtube’s annual ‘Brandcast’ event wherein Google talks about its plans for advertisers and the creative industry as a whole. The event saw an Indian version as well this year. Youtube CBO’s statement comes as yet another confirmation regarding the availability of the company’s Originals section for free, on an ad-supported model.
The company had announced last year, that it is planning to make its Original section available for free to viewers, albeit on an ad-supported model. This is pretty much similar to the model followed by most popular Youtubers or youtubing brands globally. They get a sponsor to support their content while advertising about the brand in the middle of videos and elsewhere.
Kyncl added more to what we know so far. According to him, all original programming moving forward will have an ad-supported window. There were no specific details revealed about this window though. However, what is clear is the fact that most content that is there with Youtube, will be free at some point or the other. That includes the first two seasons of the “Karate Kid” follow-up “Cobra Kai” — season one will be available for free from August 29 to September 11, and then season two will become available.
“While every other media company is racing to put their content behind the paywall, we’re headed in the opposite direction by making our original content available for free,” Kyncl said.
