Google has announced that YouTube Red, their $9.99 per month subscription service for YouTube which also comes with access to Google Play Music, is breaking up into two new services: YouTube Music and YouTube Premium. YouTube Music is a music streaming service that will be available for free with ads or for $9.99 per month without ads. YouTube Premium will be $11.99 and includes YouTube Music plus the same perks of YouTube Red. Read more ›
The landscape of streaming video is constantly shifting, with the major players constantly going after each others established markets. Amazon Video, which primarily offers big-budget content, has started dipping its toes into YouTube’s pool of self-submitted content, so it was inivetiable that YouTube would return the gesture. When YouTube Red first launched, it’s primary value proposition was ad-free YouTube, coupled with a streaming music service. Now the New York Times is reporting that YouTube Red has picked up it’s first big-budget television series. The show will be based on the movie Step Up and share the same name. Lionsgate will produce a 10-episode season, to be made available exclusively to YouTube Red subscribers. This marks YouTube’s first foray into original programming, an area dominated by the likes of Netflix and Amazon.
On the other side of the streaming landscape, BitTorrent has launched a new streaming service called BitTorrent Now, aimed at taking a piece of YouTube’s pie of ad-supported streaming content. BitTorrent Now will arrive in the form of phone, tablet, and TV apps that stream music and video using BitTorrent’s file sharing technology. Artists and content creators will be able to make their work available on the platform for free with ads or by requiring a payment. An Android app is already available, with an iOS and Apple TV app coming soon. BitTorrent says apps for other platforms will follow, so hopefully we’ll see a Fire TV app released shortly.
YouTube’s subscription service dosen’t currently offer much for it’s $9.99 per month fee, but that may soon change. According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, YouTube is reportedly trying to secure the rights to movies and TV shows to stream to their YouTube Red subscribers. The move would rival Netflix and Amazon’s on-demand video services. YouTube executives Susanne Daniels, former head of MTV’s programming, and Kelly Merryman, former Netflix executive, have been meeting with movie studios and production companies in recent months, says The WSJ. Sources say YouTube is focusing on rights to newer content, as opposed to older movies and TV shows which make up the bulk of subscription streaming video service catalogues. Even though the Fire TV’s YouTube app isn’t as full featured as the ones you find on phones and tablets, it does work with YouTube Red, so it will likely grant subscribers access to these movies and TV shows if YouTube’s negotiations pan out.
For those curious, YouTube Red, the ad-free subscription service from YouTube, does work with the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. You’re not going to get any of the added perks, like video downloads for offline viewing or background playback, like you’ll find on mobile phones and tablets, but YouTube Red subscribers who login on the Fire TV’s YouTube app will enjoy ad-free viewing as well as access to exclusive original content. After logging in you’ll find that the YouTube logo in the upper right will change to a YouTube Red logo, indicating you will no longer see any pre-roll advertisements when watching YouTube videos on Fire TV devices.
YouTube unveiled its long rumored subscription service called YouTube Red. The new service will cost $9.99 per month and let subscribers watch all YouTube videos ad-free, save videos to watch offline on supported devices, and keep videos running in the background, again on supported devices. Subscribers will also have exclusive access to original series, featuring popular YouTubers, which YouTube is creating.
Ad-free viewing via a YouTube Red subscription will likely be supported on the Amazon Fire TV’s YouTube app, but it’s unlikely other features, like offline and background viewing, will work on Fire TV devices. The Fire TV’s YouTube app is not a native app, but rather, is simply an HTML5 wrapper for youtube.com/tv. Logging into the Fire TV’s YouTube app with a YouTube Red subscribed account should result in ad-free viewing, but more advanced features will require a new native app to be released. YouTube Red will be available starting October 28th.
I missed the fact that included with a YouTube Red subscription is full access to Google Play Music, which gives on-demand access to over 30 million songs. That explains the otherwise high seeming $9.99 price. Thanks to comments from Masterblaster8987 and Ottis for pointing this out!
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