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YouTube is gearing up to offer all of its premium content for free to all users with original series and movies, using its traditional ad-supported system to attract more viewers.
The company plans to reduce its advertising-funded programs by 2020, limiting the number of original series and commissioned films, the statement said. The Hollywood journalist. The commissioned series, featuring some of Hollywood's most talented artists, will be available to all YouTube users free of charge, whether or not they subscribe to YouTube Premium. In the past, the pilot episodes were free to watch, but users had to pay a monthly fee of $ 12 to watch the entire series.
Robert Kyncl, commercial director of YouTube, said The Hollywood journalist that the company has learned experimentally that "many of the projects work incredibly well" when they are made available for free through ad-supported networks. It's a different approach than what the YouTube team originally wanted to do.
"If you look at our originals in the last few years, our main goal was to generate YouTube Premium subscribers," said Kyncl.
A fork in the road
This original approach did not work as the company wanted. Although YouTube has not yet communicated the exact number of YouTube Premium subscribers (formerly YouTube Red), the company would have only registered 1.5 million subscribers in 2016. The level Paying has not exactly kept the promise of a more prestigious and exclusive programming for users. . The shows were limited, they did not receive many critical comments and, perhaps more importantly, it turned out that the YouTube team had problems making the transition for people accustomed to a platform. free form to paid content.
All these elements brought YouTube to the crossroads: it could pursue the original series more aggressively and hope for more subscribers, or reduce its production. YouTube has instead found an alternative. The company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the expansion of YouTube Premium (in the Red era), joining celebrities such as Kevin Hart and Ellen DeGeneres for the original series. Although the paywall still existed, YouTube has considered distributing many of these series for free to all YouTube users. The new series was largely based on advertising and sponsorships. The concept was simple: big names will attract big advertisers, which means more money in YouTube's pockets.
As a result, subscriptions became less important as YouTube expanded its network of original ad-supported series. This is something that other companies working with YouTube have also noticed. A manager told Digiday that YouTube Red subscriptions accounted for "less than 1%" of revenue from major channels.
A person in charge of a network that receives more than one billion views per month on YouTube said that YouTube Red subscriber revenues represented about 7% of the network's "YouTube monetized" revenue in 2017. " That's precisely what YouTube monetizes and does not include. [the ads and sponsorships] we sell, "he said. "If you add what we sell, it becomes less than one percent."
YouTube has continued to expand its library, relying heavily on advertising support from major companies such as Johnson & Johnson, which has signed for a show run by Ryan Seacrest. But nobody, not even YouTube, could agree on what YouTube Red was, especially in a sea of fast-growing original content from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. The company showed no sign of slowing down and felt the pressure of competition, according to an article published in 2017 Bloomberg. More shows have been added, more celebrities have been hunted and more ads have been secured.
Given YouTube's investment in the original series at the time, news of the company's decision to take reduced action may seem unnatural, but executives like CEO Susan Wojcicki have hinted at this direction for some time now. time.
It was coming
In February, Wojcicki hit the headlines after telling recodingKara Swisher for whom YouTube Premium was a music service. It was the first time that a YouTube executive specifically used the subscription platform as a music service, focusing on the platform's video library through its partnership with Vevo.
"Our goal is to be a big, leading video platform and have a wide range of content," Wojcicki told Swisher. "There are all those categories that no one really can solve, and we can be the best at it. Shows and movies are a very competitive space. you have to pay economically with a subscription service. "
When asked if YouTube was interested in developing a series that could compete with an original Netflix or Hulu show of prestige, in the same spirit as Room of cardsWojcicki gave another insightful answer regarding the company's projects.
"We could do it, but I'm not sure it would be consistent with what we're trying to do on YouTube," she said.
It was a difficult 180-degree turn from where the company's plans were two years ago. Susanne Daniels, the former head of MTV's original content overseeing YouTube Premium, told reporters in 2016 the opposite.
"YouTube is all original content," Daniels said. "We want to open the Hollywood rolodex and introduce our creators to visionary filmmakers, writers and producers."
This is a short time for a mbadive movement of winds. Some events may help explain YouTube's reluctance to pursue more original series – especially with individual creators who have a lot of followers on YouTube.
Part of the plan for the original YouTube series was to attract larger advertisers, but as a result of many controversies – disruptive content for children, misinformation, conspiracy theories and terrorist content appearing with ads on the platform – businesses were reluctant to place ads on YouTube videos. YouTube could not guarantee security, which was a big concern for advertisers.
Then, YouTube has had problems with individual creators. Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg lost his original series PewDiePie Scare in february 2017, following the controversy over antisemitic jokes and the images that appear in his videos. The original movie of Logan Paul Thinotning: New world order was put on hold after filming a corpse in the Japanese forest of Aokigahara earlier this year. (Paul's film was released informally last month.) Both creators worked with YouTube on the projects and earned premium advertising revenue from Google Preferred. The company was facing major problems. Suddenly, his stars became controversial faces and advertisers did not want their ads to appear on the videos or sponsor these creators.
YouTube executives may have launched YouTube Red with the intention of being a true competitor of Netflix and refining its own talent for original series, but suddenly the bet had become too risky. People were not really subscribers, advertisers worried about the platform and the creators were more reliable. So YouTube has rotated to a safer bet that he could develop: music and celebrities.
And after?
If this trajectory seems familiar to you, it's because it's the same that has defined MTV for years.
The future of YouTube Premium is not clear, but one thing is certain: it will not depend on subscriptions. Instead, society returns to its roots and invests the power of the stars. The ads will appear before the videos and everything will be free. However, in order to keep the most expensive commercials from big companies, celebrities will be called. That's why Victoria Beckham has a YouTube channel, alongside Will Smith and Ellen DeGeneres.
Now YouTube Premium is not as valuable to users; Apart from offline music and ad-free viewing, subscribers will not get much out of it. But for the company, it does not matter. Subscriptions are not what interests YouTube, but commercials and celebrity chains. With the arrival of more and more celebrities, both to strengthen the credibility of the platform within the sector and to get better ads, the YouTube landscape will change.
What was once a possible purchase for those who might have been interested in the original YouTube content that was hidden behind a subscription suddenly seems to be an inexplicable purchase.
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