Sweep the leg.
Yes, you read that right. Acording to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, YouTube has finally figured out that no one goes to YouTube to pay $12 a month to watch literally anything. And as such, they plan on making their originals free to view starting next year.
This means that shows like Cobra Kai and… uh… other… YouTube originals will be free to watch starting next year. No subscription fee or anything. Granted, that’s not to say that they don’t plan on making money on these shows. They plan to switch to an ad-based plan for them, rather than the paid subscription. A spokesperson had this to say to Variety:
As we look to 2019, we will begin making all our YouTube Originals ad-supported to meet the growing demand of a more global fanbase. This next phase of our originals strategy will expand the audience of our YouTube Original creators, and provide advertisers with incredible content that reaches the YouTube generation.
As YouTube doesn’t have quite the same development budget as Netflix or Amazon, it’s not really surprising that they might take a change of tack. Most of the scripted shows they had were expensive, so the above statement suggests that they’ll rely on celebrity-produced content and the usual creator-based videos they’re more known for. That said, I see something I like and I’m far more willing to let ads run to support it, so that might not mean all of their previous originals will go away. Cobra Kai was renewed, after all.
Source: Gizmodo
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