YouTube’s upcoming paid video streaming service already has licensing deals with 90% of viewership

Google is hard at work trying to roll all kinds of content into its YouTube streaming service. We already have Music Key, and a service dedicated to video game streaming is still in the pipeline. There are still rumors of an upcoming paid video streaming service to compete with Netflix and Amazon, though, and some new details have emerged about progress on that service today.

Google has reportedly secured deals with over 90% of viewership on YouTube, and interestingly enough, that doesn’t include a single major television network. YouTube says that everything is going according to plan, though, so they’re either planning on the networks jumping in at the last minute or they’re going to float the entire service with original programming.

According to some producers close to the inner workings of this service, original content could end up being a major component of YouTube over the next year. We might end up seeing several exclusive original series on YouTube next year that will only be available to paid subscribers, driving subscription fees for the company. Whether or not those shows will be any good remains to be seen, but budgets for series reportedly goes all the way up to $5 million, so hopefully YouTube can craft something worth watching out of that.

Aside from the actual content, subscribers will also probably get some useful YouTube features like offline playback and background playback on a phone or tablet, which would be a first for a major video streaming service. Overall, it sounds like Music Key, but for video.

YouTube expects the service to start rolling out by the end of this year, so we have just a few months before all the details get clarified.

source: Bloomberg

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