YouTube has concluded that its investments in original programming are better placed on the free, ad-supported side — not behind a paywall.
In a shift in strategy, the Google-owned video platform said that starting next year, it will move to make all of its original programming available for free for anyone to watch. With the change, YouTube is moving to more celebrity-driven and creator-based reality fare and shifting away from pricier scripted productions.
Until now, YouTube Originals have mainly been available on its YouTube Premium subscription service, although YouTube also has expanded the shows and movies it makes available on an ad-supported basis.
“As we look to 2019, we will begin making all of our YouTube Originals ad-supported to meet the growing demand of a more global fanbase,” a YouTube rep said in a statement. “This next phase of our originals strategy will expand the audience of our YouTube Original creators, and provide advertisers with incredible content that reaches the YouTube generation.”
The move will make YouTube Originals available to the platform’s nearly 2 billion users worldwide. That, according to YouTube, will give YouTube creators and other talent the opportunity to reach an even wider audience.
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YouTube Originals have included bigger-budget shows like sci-fi thriller series “Origin” from the U.K.’s Left Bank Pictures, the production company behind Netflix’s “The Crown”; “Cobra Kai,” an offshoot of the “Karate Kid” movies; and “Step Up: High Water,” based on the movie franchise of the same name.
The lineup of YouTube Originals has been a key value proposition of YouTube Premium, priced at $11.99 per month, which also offers ad-free and offline viewing. This year, according to the video platform, YouTube expanded the YouTube Premium service — initially launched in the U.S. as YouTube Red — to 29 countries and premiered more than 50 shows.
Moving forward, YouTube Premium will no longer be dangling original, exclusive content as a reason to pay for the service.
According to YouTube, the strategy of putting originals featuring homegrown YouTube stars on the subscription VOD service worked: That programming drove fans to sign up for the service and giving creators a new canvas for longer-form projects. The original shows have included sitcom “Foursome”; murder-mystery show “Escape the Night” with Joey Graceffa; and “The Thinning” dystopian films starring Logan Paul and Peyton List.
At this summer’s Television Critics Association, YouTube announced renewals for “Impulse,” “Step Up: High Water,” “Mind Field,” “Foursome,” “Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television,” “Kevin Hart: What the Fit,” and “Cobra Kai,” which each set to return in 2019.
In 2015, YouTube launched its initial slate of original series and movies, which included the “Scare PewDiePie” reality-adventure series and Rooster Teeth’s “Lazer Team” sci-fi action-comedy — available only to subscribers.
Pictured above: YouTube original series “Cobra Kai”
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