YouTube Originals: series and shows coming soon
Contrary to paying streaming services, the video platform will broadcast its original content for free, with advertising.
As we announced a few months ago (see news), YouTube intends to broadcast free original content. On YouTube Brandcast 2019, an event for advertisers, the platform yesterday confirmed on its official blog that original programs and series would be offered free access this fall, around the world.
Of course, it is not a decision dictated by pure philanthropy: the broadcasts will be accompanied by advertisements. In fact, YouTube seems determined to take the opposite of paid video streaming services that are growing at an impressive rate. Because behind the behemoths Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, other major players like Apple and Disney embark on the adventure to share this very promising market. YouTube, which already has an offer of this type with its Premium service, seems to want to disengage from this type of formula by adopting a new business model financed exclusively by advertising.
A model that is not unlike that of conventional private television. YouTube justifies its strategic choice by affirming, figures in support, that it is the ideal way for advertisers to reach a large audience in a targeted way, with a better return on investment, the platform being able to propose thanks to its powerful algorithms of channels and customized programs, tailored to the tastes and profiles of each user. A speech that can not be made by subscription video platforms, which offer content without any advertising. And above all, a great way for YouTube to differentiate itself in a market where drunk competition increasingly harder. Especially since the platform already has a long and serious experience in advertising.
If the future of the paid format seems compromised by this new strategy, YouTube will bet on several types of content. The platform will continue to produce series, such as Cobra Kai (a derivative of the film Karate Kid), and original programs, such as The Jump with Will Smith, which are hugely successful. But she also plans to develop the community and the achievements of creators, whether tutorials - a popular category on YouTube - or videos made by "pioneering" youtubers. And it also promises to strengthen its music and sports offering, by broadcasting more shows and matches through partnerships such as the one recently signed with the American Baseball League.
It is obviously much too early to decide on the choice of YouTube, but we should soon know if free is paid.
Younes Derfoufi
