YouTube Premium

YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) is a paid streaming service available exclusively for the version of YouTube accessible from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Korea, Canada, Colombia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland.

The service provides ad-free streaming of all videos hosted by YouTube, offline playback and background playback of videos on mobile devices, access to ad-free streaming music through the YouTube Music Premium services (the base service has advertising) and Google Play Music, and access to the original YouTube Originals (formerly YouTube Red Originals) series and movies.

The announcement of the rebranding of the premium service, along with the possibility of subscribing to the only dedicated music service, took place on May 17, 2018. In Italy, the service was officially launched on June 18, 2018.

YouTube Premium history

The service was first announced in November 2014 as Music Key, in partnership with Google Play Music and set to succeed the former owner’s subscription service. Music Key offered ad-free playback of music videos from participating labels hosted on YouTube, as well as background and offline playback of music videos on mobile devices from the YouTube app. The service also included access to Google Play Music Unlimited, which provides ad-free audio streaming of a music library. Alongside Music Key, Google has also introduced closer integration between Play Music and YouTube apps, including sharing music recommendations and accessing YouTube music videos from the Play Music app. Music Key wasn’t YouTube’s first foray into premium content, having launched movie rental in 2010 and subscription-based premium channels in 2013.

During the beta, Music Key faced mixed reception due to the limited scope of the offer; YouTube’s chief business officer, Robert Kyncl, explained that his daughter was confused that videos of Frozen songs were not “music” within the scope of the service, and therefore not advertised. These concerns and others led to a revamping of the Music Key concept to create YouTube Red; Unlike Music Key, YouTube Red was designed to provide ad-free streaming to all videos, rather than just music content. This step required YouTube to seek permission from its content creators and rights holders to allow their content to be part of the service without ads; Under the new terms, partners would receive a share of the total revenue from YouTube Red subscriptions, based on how much their content is viewed by subscribers.

YouTube has also tried to compete with sites like Hulu and Netflix by offering original content as part of the subscription service, leveraging prominent YouTube personalities in combination with professional producers. Robert Kyncl acknowledged that many of YouTube’s most prominent personalities have built their content and created content while operating on a tight budget, admitting that “to scale, it takes a different kind of enterprise, a different kind of skill ‘like storytelling and showrunning’. PewDiePie, who was involved in one of the originals plans for the service, explained that the service was intended to mitigate lost profits due to the use of ad blocking.

YouTube Red was officially unveiled on October 21, 2015. On May 18, 2016, YouTube Red and YouTube Music launched in Australia and New Zealand, the first countries to access the service outside the United States. In addition, on August 3, 2016, the YouTube Red app was added to the YouTube Kids app. On December 6, 2016, YouTube Red expanded into South Korea.

Moreover, on May 17, 2018, YouTube announced the upcoming rebranding of the service as YouTube Premium, along with the relaunch of YouTube Music with a separate subscription service focused exclusively on music (which will be paired with the broader YouTube Premium service and also offered to Google Play Music subscribers). YouTube also announced that the price of the service would increase from $9. 99 (which will serve as a price point for the Music service) to $11. 99 per month for new subscribers and that it would expand the service to Canada and 13 European markets (including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), with further expansions to come in the future.

Features

A YouTube Premium membership allows users to watch videos on YouTube without ads through the website and its mobile apps, including the dedicated apps of YouTube Music, YouTube Gaming, and YouTube Kids. Through the apps, users can also save videos to their device for offline viewing, play them in the background and in picture-in-picture mode on Android Oreo. YouTube Premium also offers exclusive original content for subscribers, created and published by YouTube’s biggest creators. The service also offers ad-free music streaming via google play music’s Unlimited Access service.

Contents on YouTube Premium

YouTube Premium offers original movies and series produced in partnership with professional studios and YouTube personalities. For multi-episode series, the first episode of a YouTube Premium original series is available for free. In some countries where the service is not yet available, you can purchase individual episodes through YouTube or Google Play Movies.

Web series

Drama

Title	Gender	Beginning	Duration
Broke	Dramatic	28 September 2016	8-19 min
Lifeline	Science fiction	October 11, 2017	22-26 min
Step Up: High Water	Drama/Romance	January 31, 2018	41-57 min
Impulse	Dramatic	June 6, 2018	44-60 min

Comedies

Title	Gender	Beginning	Duration
Foursome	Romantic comedy	March 30, 2016	22 mins
Sing It!	Comedy	25 May 2016	21-26 min
Bad Internet	Black comedy	25 May 2016	12 min
Single by 30	Comedy drama	August 24, 2016	24-25 min
Rhett and Link’s Buddy System	Comedy	October 19, 2016	15-22 min
Me and My Grandma	Comedy	March 22, 2017	22 mins
Good Game	Comedy	August 30, 2017	21-28 min
Long Distance	Comedy	September 28, 2017	24 mins
Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television	Comedy/Mystery	October 25, 2017	21-31 min
Do You Want To See a Dead Body?	Comedy	November 17, 2017	12-23 min
I’m Poppy	Comedy	January 25, 2017	23 mins
Youth & Consequences	Comedy drama	March 7, 2018	26-34 min
Cobra Kai	Comedy drama	May 2, 2018	30 min
Liza on Demand	Comedy	June 27, 2018	30 min

Continuations

Title	Gender	Previous network	Beginning	Duration
We Are Savvy	Children	Family Channel	6 September 2016	22-23 min

Miniseries

Title	Gender	Beginning	Duration
12 Deadly Days	Horror/Thriller/Comedy	December 12, 2016	22-27 min

Animation

Title	Beginning	Duration
Paranormal Action Squad	November 16, 2016	11-13 min
Kings of Atlantis	April 7, 2017	11 min
DanTDM Creates a Big Scene	April 7, 2017	11 min
Fruit Ninja: Frenzy Force	May 5, 2017	11 min
Dallas & Robo	May 30, 2018	22-26 min

Anime

Title	Beginning	Duration
IDOLiSH7: Vibrato	17 January 2019	11–15 min
Obsolete	3 December 2019	12-13 min

Reality

Title	Beginning	Duration
Scare PewDiePie	10 February 2016	14-23 min
Prank Academy	March 30, 2016	9-13 min
MatPat’s Game Lab	June 8, 2016	23 mins
Escape the Night	22 June 2016	21-26 min
Fight of the Living Dead	June 8, 2016	21-38 min
Mind Field	January 18, 2017	20-35 min
Squad Wars	January 26, 2017	25 mins
Run, BIGBANG Scout!	April 26, 2017	4-24 min
Hyperlinked	May 31, 2017	21-23 min
Lace Up: The Ultimate Sneaker Challenge	September 13, 2017	43-46 min
Furze World Wonders	September 28, 2017	20-21 min
Roman Atwood’s Day Dreams	November 22, 2017	22-25 min
Ultimate Expedition	January 17, 2018	30 min
BTS: Burn The Stage	March 28, 2018	21-26 min
F2 Finding Football	June 13, 2018	23-27 min
The Sidemen Show	June 18, 2018	25-33 min
Best Shot	18 July 2018	22-50 min

Films

Drama

Title	Gender	Publication
The Thinning	Thriller	October 12, 2016
Snap	Dramatic	August 2, 2017

Comedies

Title	Gender	Publication
Lazer Team	Science fiction	27 January 2016
Dance Camp	Musical	10 February 2016
We Love You	Romantic	November 22, 2016
Jingle Ballin’	Comedy	December 6, 2016
Ghostmates	Comedy	14 December 2016
The Keys of Christmas	Comedy	19 December 2016
Alexander IRL	Comedy	January 11, 2017
Reggae Shark Adventures	Comedy	August 12, 2017
Lazer Team 2	Science fiction	November 22, 2017

Documentaries

Title	Publication
A Trip to Unicorn Island	10 February 2016
The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire	October 5, 2016
Dan and Phil’s Story of TATINOF	October 5, 2016
Vlogumentary	26 October 2016
Gigi Gorgeous: This is Everything	8 February 2017
Lindsey Stirling: Brave Enough	May 17, 2017
Inventerprise	August 1, 2017
Katy Perry: Will You Be My Witness	October 4, 2017
Demi Lovato Simply Complicated: Director’s Cut	December 18, 2017
One Shot	15 February 2018

Obtained

Title	Gender	Publication
Kedi – The city of cats	Documentary	May 10, 2017
King of the Dancehall	Dramatic	August 2, 2017
G-Funk	Documentary	July 11, 2018

Future planning

Series

Order

Title	Gender	Beginning
Origin	Dramatic	2018
Swipe Right	Romantic comedy	2018
Wayne	Action	2018
On Becoming a God in Central Florida	Black comedy	2019
Untitled DOCuseries on Artificial Intelligence	Docuseries	2019
Kat & June Think Stuff!	Comedy	TBA

In development

Title	Gender	Beginning
Psychopath	Comedy	TBA
High & Tight
17-year-old untitled spin-offs (and how to get out of it alive)
Untitled talk show with Jake Paul	Talk show
Widow	Black comedy

Film

Title	Gender	Publication
Vulture Club	Dramatic	2018
The Lou Pearlman Project	Documentary	2018

Obtained

Title	Gender	Publication
Bodied	Comedy Drama	2018

Logos of YouTube Premium

License Terms on YouTube Premium

In May 2014, prior to the official unveiling of the Music Key service, the independent music industry organization Worldwide Independent Network claimed that YouTube used non-negotiable contracts with independent labels that were “undervalued” compared to other streaming services and stated that YouTube threatened to block videos from a public access label if they did not agree to the new terms. In a statement to the Financial Times in June 2014, Robert Kyncl confirmed that these measures were “to ensure that all content on the platform was governed by its new contractual terms.

” Stating that 90% of the labels had achieved offers, stating that “while we hope to have a 100% success rate, we understand that it is probably not an achievable goal and therefore it is our responsibility for our users and the industry to launch the improved music experience“. The Financial Times later reported that YouTube had reached an aggregate agreement with Merlin Network, a trading group representing more than 20,000 independent labels, for their inclusion in the service. However, YouTube itself has not confirmed the deal.

After YouTube Red was introduced, it was stated that these same contractual requirements would apply to all members of the YouTube partner program; Partners who do not agree to the new terms and revenue-sharing agreements for the YouTube Red service will have their videos blocked entirely in regions where YouTube Red is available. ESPN’s YouTube channels were a major part affected by the change; a representative of ESPN, The Walt Disney Company, stated that conflicts with third-party rights holders in relation to sports footage contained in ESPN’s YouTube videos prevented them from being offered under the new terms. A limited number of previous videos remain on ESPN’s main channel.

Similarly, a large amount of content licensed by Japanese and Korean record labels is no longer available in regions where YouTube Red is available. It was believed that the ability to download videos for offline viewing on YouTube Red was a reason for hesitation for Japanese media companies due to the need to monitor when, where and how content is used in accordance with Japanese copyright laws; hence, their content has been blocked according to the new requirements.

References (sources)

YouTube Red available locations, YouTube Help, Google; Miguel Helft, YouTube to Introduce Limited Film Rental Service, The New York Times, 2010; Article, Wikipedia; Todd Spangler, YouTube Red Unveiled: Ad-Free Streaming Service Priced Same as Netflix, Variety, 2015; Edge of Seventeen’ TV Spinoff Set at YouTube (Exclusive), The Hollywood Reporter.