YouTube Red is Google's major move to take on giants like Netflix, while also delivering an enhanced experience inside the service we all know. From the start, it was known that YouTube would bring exclusive series and movies to the Red system, and this week the first projects were confirmed, led by Scare PewDiePie and the sci-fi comedy Lazer Team.
The official presentation of YouTube Red sent shockwaves across the web. Despite YouTube's enormous popularity, it's clear that user-uploaded content has limits, and to stay firm against the new industry giants (like Netflix and Hulu), a parallel subscription system is necessary. The traditional YouTube experience hasn't changed at all, but YouTube Red is about to hit the gas. The key is exclusive material, with new series and movies that will expand what we know from YouTube while adding more users.
The First Exclusive Projects
As expected, YouTube Red's flagship series will be Scare PewDiePie, in which the famous Swedish youtuber can be seen exploring (and suffering) environments similar to those of the horror titles he played before. Next is the sci-fi comedy Lazer Team, which technically isn't exclusive to YouTube Red, but the service will act as its main digital distributor. The other two announced projects are Dance Camp, from the AwesomenessTV channel, and A Trip To Unicorn Island, a movie covering the tour of youtuber Lilly Singh.
Two Challenges Google Must Overcome
While it's very interesting that YouTube Red is starting to gain traction with internal productions and recently released independent films, there are two details Google needs to adjust as soon as possible. The first is to globalize YouTube Red. While its direct competitors reach dozens of countries, restricting YouTube Red to the US makes no sense, and even though English can be a barrier for many users, not having it available in places like Canada or the UK is truly crazy. The second is the demographic range YouTube Red targets. I think we all agree on imagining ages from 16 to 25, and unless I'm (very) wrong, that user group doesn't pay for content on the web. All doubts will be cleared on February 10.
