Youtube Red
Robert Kyncl, YouTubes chief business officer, unveiled YouTube’s new paid subscription service at the YouTube Space in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, California on October 21, 2015. YouTube also launched the new YouTube Music app that is free to watch with ads, but subscribers to YouTube Red can watch YouTube Music content without the ads.
The new YouTube Red will cost you $9.99 per month and will be available for purchase from October 28th, starting in the US, then rolling out worldwide. Users who sign up for YouTube Red through Apple Incs app store, will pay $13 a month instead of $9.99.
“I think the iOS pricing is really a very poor pricing decision. Asking such a large portion of the market to pay 30% more seems like a very bold move for YouTube, and I dont think that any value proposition is there,” said Romeel Chaudhari, a freshman in Computer Science. “After all, a $13/month subscription gets existing content with the promise of exclusive content coming at some point and with ad blocking apps, I dont think thats cutting it in todays environment.”
Google stated, “The free, ad-supported version of YouTube we all know and love isnt going anywhere. Youll still be able to enjoy YouTube, along with the YouTube Kids, Gaming and Music apps free of charge. But with YouTube Red, youll be able to support the people who make your favorite videos while watching what you want, when you want, on any device you want, uninterrupted.”
Kyncl said, “YouTube Red is targeted at the same audiences that make up the bulk of YouTubes audience now, including gamers and young women.”
Apart from ad free service, subscribers will be able to save videos for offline viewing – perfect during a flight or when someone is away from Wi-Fi networks. Videos can also be played in the background of a mobile device, putting down the need to keep a YouTube app’s window open as a video plays. The monthly fee also includes YouTubes new gaming app and access to Google Play Music, the companys music streaming service designed to compete with Apple Music and Spotify.
“Consumers are embracing paid subscriptions of ad-free content at an incredible pace,” Kyncl said at the unveiling event in Los Angeles.
With the new Red, YouTube is signaling a definitive swing from “an ad-funded video-hosting service” to a “media company” that will eventually go into an open and direct competition with Hulu and Netflix. YouTube has the potential to dominate the industry: if just 5 percent of its US viewers were to sign up for the service, it would add more than a billion dollars in annual revenue to the company’s bottom line.
If everything plays out as Kyncl hopes, there will be more money, more content, and more viewership overall. He said, “To us what is important is we are not doing what everyone