Google's video entertainment arm, YouTube, has launched an ad-free subscription option to video watchers, and they're naming it, YouTube Red.
YouTube is one of the biggest entertainment platforms live today, raking in a billion visitors per day in traffic. Last month, the company launched a new subscription option that removes advertisements, allows video downloading and gives access to Google's music streaming service, YouTube Red. The Motley Fool also adds that Google will be adding in-house content for its YouTube Red subscribers.
The new subscription service places YouTube toe-to-toe with premium streaming video products online like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Instant Video. With the inclusion of YouTube Red, it also brings it as competition for music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music.
Just like Spotify, subscribers of YouTube Red are given capability through YouTube Music to create stations that will shuffle music through specific genre. The premium subscription will also bring a better search capability to find new talents.
Metro reports that YouTube Red is now available in the US, through the mobile apps and browser versions. YouTube Red will come to more countries in the near future. If YouTube Red subscribers leave the US, the service will not be available, but those videos already downloaded offline will be available for 30 days.
YouTube has now been up for ten years and has grown a strong network of video creators, advertisers, a large group of marketing middlemen and viewers. Wired states that the success of YouTube Red could mean a better YouTube for everyone, giving viewers more control by removing ads.
This move however, could be highly questionable for the advertisers that pay a reasonable amount of money to get their products and services featured on the video streaming platform.
Of course, the premium service comes with a price tag, and is made available for a $9.99 monthly subscription fee.
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