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YouTube Switches to Free, Ad-Supported Streaming Strategy for Original TV Shows

Shanghaichica

Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,642
13,143
UK
69Mustang said:
Anecdotally, I have a Google Play Music/Youtube Premium Family plan. I have never watched a single YT Original. Neither has my wife or kids. I have heard good things about Cobra Kai though. The problem for YT Originals is unfortunately... Youtube. It has too much content. Love it or hate, YT is the rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes. Even without rabbit holing, people tend to concentrate on their subscribed channels. YT Originals end up being background noise. No one is signing up just to view that. So they might as well make them free with ads. At least they'll get more views.
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Yes I’m the same. I subscribe to YouTube premium. I use it to watch ad free YouTube videos, to download YouTube videos for offline viewing and to listen to the audio with the screen off. I occasionally use google play music on my google home devices. However I’ve never watched a YouTube original programme. I’ve been subscribing for 10 months. Since it became available in the uk.
 
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JGIGS

JGIGS

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2008
1,818
2,075
CANADA!
69Mustang said:
Anecdotally, I have a Google Play Music/Youtube Premium Family plan. I have never watched a single YT Original. Neither has my wife or kids. I have heard good things about Cobra Kai though. The problem for YT Originals is unfortunately... Youtube. It has too much content. Love it or hate, YT is the rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes. Even without rabbit holing, people tend to concentrate on their subscribed channels. YT Originals end up being background noise. No one is signing up just to view that. So they might as well make them free with ads. At least they'll get more views.
Click to expand...

Maybe that’s part of it but I think they are also really bad at promoting their YT Originals. I’ve seen the odd Cobra Kai ad show up on YouTube but wasn’t aware it was an actual professionally produced series till reading this article.
 
fairuz

fairuz

macrumors 68020
Aug 27, 2017
2,486
2,589
Silicon Valley
Garsun said:
I don’t mind paying a small fee if I do not have to watch a few 30 second ads in every show.

Human diversity is a wonderful thing.

It would be nice if they offered both options.
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People tend to undervalue their time. The only problem is it can take time to manage your subscriptions.
 
B

BuffaloTF

macrumors 68000
Jun 10, 2008
1,768
2,232
69Mustang said:
Anecdotally, I have a Google Play Music/Youtube Premium Family plan. I have never watched a single YT Original. Neither has my wife or kids. I have heard good things about Cobra Kai though. The problem for YT Originals is unfortunately... Youtube. It has too much content. Love it or hate, YT is the rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes. Even without rabbit holing, people tend to concentrate on their subscribed channels. YT Originals end up being background noise. No one is signing up just to view that. So they might as well make them free with ads. At least they'll get more views.
Click to expand...

I subscribed specifically for Cobra Kai.

The app sucks for this type of thing. There's no intuitive way to get to the series and start at episode 1... season 2 just started, they try to force me to start there. There's no "List" if you will... no easy control over series like you've grown accustomed to on Netflix or Hulu. The entire design sucks... that's their biggest problem. Background noise is a great to describe it, as you have... they're in too deep on recommending things based on some garbage video you watched 1 time and not in promoting their own original content.
 
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MisterSavage

MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,630
5,475
"While every other media company is building a paywall, we are headed in the opposite direction"

Uhhhh you tried a paywall first. Hoping they make all episodes of Cobra Kai under this.
 
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ftaok

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,487
1,572
East Coast
Looks like there are some more details regarding the new Ad-Supported YouTube Original programming and Cobra Kai.

https://ew.com/tv/2019/05/02/cobra-kai-season-3-renewed/

Season 1 will be available for free-streaming for 2 weeks ... Aug 29 to September 11.

Season 2 will be available for free-streaming starting September 11, but episodes will be released one week at a time.

My dilemma is whether to wait until August or pay now for it. Vudu has season 1 for $15. I guess I could sign up for YT Premium and cram 20 episodes into the trial period.

Decisions decisions decisions.
 
diipii

diipii

macrumors 6502a
Dec 6, 2012
618
552
UK
Take a hammer and smash every TV you own. Break the habit of blind consumption of opiates of the masses. Google is taking you for a sucker, almost as much as Apple.
 
russell_314

russell_314

macrumors 603
Feb 10, 2019
6,045
9,004
USA
Shanghaichica said:
Yes I’m the same. I subscribe to YouTube premium. I use it to watch ad free YouTube videos, to download YouTube videos for offline viewing and to listen to the audio with the screen off. I occasionally use google play music on my google home devices. However I’ve never watched a YouTube original programme. I’ve been subscribing for 10 months. Since it became available in the uk.
Click to expand...
YouTube premium is silly IMO. Many of the music videos aren't licensed so Google is making money streaming pirated music? Of course actual licensed videos are becoming more popular. My thing is I get most of the "premium" features without paying Google $13 a month. I watch ad free videos on my Mac and PC. I listen to audio with the screen off on my iPhone. For me I always have an LTE connection so I don't really need to save YouTube videos offline. I can save them to camera roll but I rarely do it. If they offered ad free videos and using the app in the background for $5 a month I probably would go for it but for me it's hard to justify the current price. Of course everyone's needs and budget are different
 
FFR

FFR

Suspended
Nov 4, 2007
4,507
2,374
London
PickUrPoison said:
It sounds like YouTube premium doesn’t have many subscribers, or if it does, customers aren't all that interested in the original series. Making them ad-supported will at least get them seen, but if they’re no good people still won’t watch them, even if they’re free.
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That was my first thought as well.

How many subscribers do they have?
 
B

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,025
69Mustang said:
Anecdotally, I have a Google Play Music/Youtube Premium Family plan. I have never watched a single YT Original. Neither has my wife or kids. I have heard good things about Cobra Kai though. The problem for YT Originals is unfortunately... Youtube. It has too much content. Love it or hate, YT is the rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes. Even without rabbit holing, people tend to concentrate on their subscribed channels. YT Originals end up being background noise. No one is signing up just to view that. So they might as well make them free with ads. At least they'll get more views.
Click to expand...

As a Google Play Music / Youtube Red? Family plan subscriber - ditto. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Youtube has a handful of original content providers that I still watch - I got Youtube Red back in the day because I couldn't stand the ads. The family plan allows 5? members of my family to share Youtube Red and Google Music.
 
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