YouTube is launching a new subscription service that will allow viewers to watch content without advertisements.
Launching October 28, YouTube Red will also allow subscribers to watch content offline on their phone or tablet, for a monthly $9.99.
The ‘membership’, as YouTube is describing it, will also include YouTube’s recently launched Gaming app and a new YouTube Music app, which has also been announced today. Anyone subscribing to YouTube Red will also gain access to Google Play Music and vice versa.
Launching next year will be a series of exclusive videos created as a result of YouTube’s content investment program announced late last year. In its own way YouTube is effectively getting into the premium content business, though this is a distance from House of Cards on Netflix. Shows on the slate include.
- Scare PewDiePie: In this reality-adventure series from the creator and executive producers of The Walking Dead at Skybound Entertainment and Maker Studios, experience thrills, chills and laughter asPewDiePie encounters terrifying situations inspired by his favorite video games.
- Sing It!: From Fine Brothers Entertainment and Mandeville Films comes SING IT!, a scripted comedy that lovingly satirizes the reality singing competitions that have become a centerpiece of pop culture.
- Fight of the Living Dead: In an unprecedented social experiment reality show from Alpine Labs, Fight of the Living Dead takes popular YouTube talent and traps them in a frighteningly realistic zombie apocalypse. They must use their instincts and gaming skills to survive as they battle the elements for the ultimate prize of survival.
- I Am Tobuscus: From the mind of Toby Turner, this scripted comedy explores the world of a self-involved YouTube creator pursuing bigger stardom. The show features original music, and satirizes the hilarious details of being an eccentric, new-age celebrity. (source: YouTube)
A free one-month trial is available in the US from October 28.
