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YouTube To Make New Originals Available for Free, Ad-Supported Viewing With 'Single Slate' Strategy (variety.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

YouTube has concluded that its investments in original programming should have a home on the free, ad-supported side -- not just tucked behind a paywall. Variety: In a shift in strategy, the Google-owned video platform said that starting next year it will move to make all of its new original programming available for free for anyone to watch. With the change, YouTube is moving toward more mainstream celebrity-driven and creator-based reality fare, while it will continue to greenlight 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 continue to invest in scripted programming and shift to make 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."

9 comments

  1. Second Story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Posted about this same subject in 24 hours. How much is YouTube paying you for promotion?

    1. Re: Second Story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More than they ever spent on advertising that they made original content in the first place since if it weren't for these stories I would never have known. I knew there was some sort of YouTube subscription thing, but I never knew there was anything "locked" behind it. I thought it was for removing ads or something.

  2. Dupe by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    We just had this the other day: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/11/27/2222247/youtube-to-make-new-originals-available-for-free-ad-supported-viewing.

    I suppose for all the complaints about how much /. has changed, at least some things stay the same.

  3. Fun Dupe! by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

    Sheesh, this is a dupe of like 18 hours ago. Here it is

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
    1. Re:Fun Dupe! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's even still on the front page. Those are the best kind of dupes, which is to say the ones that make it clear that the "editors" are just phoning it in. Nobody should be allowed to be an editor of anything they don't actually read.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Deja Vu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I feel like I've seen this somewhere before...

  5. Huh by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    So, UsTube?

  6. Breaking News: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's 2018 and people still don't want to pay for stuff.

  7. Ad support all the things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would people sign their life away for ad aupported UBI? Where adblocking is a felony.