YouTube Red: 5 Things to Know About the Streaming Service

The upcoming YouTube Red original Cobra Kai, a TV spinoff of The Karate Kid. Photograph: Youtube Red

Much the way Amazon now dominates the American retail market, YouTube doesn't have a problem drawing eyeballs. Every bit of last summer, the Google-owned visitor boasted a monthly user base of operations of 1.5 billion global viewers, a platform rivaled only by Chinese land goggle box. For nigh of its 13 years in existence, YouTube's financial model was not that unlike to old-school linear broadcast networks: Viewers got lots of costless content but "paid" for it by watching commercials. As successful as that strategy has been, the video giant is at present making a serious push into the subscription-based TV business, and information technology's targeting the same eyeballs — and dollars — every bit Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

YouTube'south premium tier, dubbed Cerise, has actually been around since late 2015. For a monthly fee of $ten, subscribers get to skip all advertising on YouTube videos while also gaining access to a pair of Spotify-like sound platforms (YouTube Music and Google Play Music). YouTube Red has also offered original programming since early 2016, serving upwardly everything from feature-length films (Lazer Team) and reality shows (Escape the Night) to standard-issue sitcoms (Foursome). These early efforts haven't broken out much outside of YouTube'due south own (very expansive) ecosystem, but that's most by design: About of the initial projects were built around existing YouTube superstars who already boasted their ain (often very young) audience bases. (Aye, of form, PewDePie had his own reality show on Cherry-red.)

Only a new wave of projects promises to bring greater attention to Red, potentially expanding the service'southward audience across difficult-core YouTubers. Susanne Daniels, the YouTube global content chief who oversees programming for Red, today announced a May ii launch for Cobra Kai, a TV spinoff of The Karate Kid, featuring original stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka. (The series will also get a splashy premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24.) This year has likewise seen the inflow of a slickly produced trip the light fantastic drama based on the Pace Upward flick franchise as well as Youth & Consequences, a darkly comic teen lather from veteran producer Mark Gordon (Ray Donovan, Criminal Minds). Other projects in the works include an adaptation of author Steven Gould'due south sci-fi thriller Impulse (from Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman), the basketball documentary series Best Shot (produced by LeBron James), and the John Cena–Kat Dennings-voiced animated comedy Dallas & Robo (from BoJack Horseman writer Mike Roberts).

While Google's deep pockets theoretically mean YouTube Scarlet could start churning out a lot more original series, there's no indication Daniels is looking to lucifer Netflix or even Hulu in terms of her overall programming budget. But that doesn't mean she doesn't take big plans for the service. Vulture recently spent a half hour on the phone with Daniels discussing the evolution of Red, where it fits into the larger streaming universe, and how she sees information technology evolving farther in the next few years. Hither are five fundamental takeaways from our conversation.

When YouTube Scarlet first started making its own episodic long-class content dorsum in 2016, Daniels and her team understandably opted to tap into the service'due south base of operations of homegrown talent. Programs such as Rhett and Link'southward Buddy System or Unmarried by 30 were more often than not congenital around well-known YouTubers, with the hope that audiences already spending a lot of time on the site would fork over a monthly subscription fee to come across shows with their favorite personalities. Considering of the initial emphasis on the native YouTube base, casual observers might have figured YouTube wasn't in the same game as Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu, whose originals aim for the same consumers who fork over $xv per month for HBO. Non so, insists Daniels. "We started where we were just doing one affair," referring to the early on batch of YouTuber-centric series. "Only we're at present also engaged in developing and producing newer, broader-appeal-type programming that doesn't only focus on YouTube talent and the YouTube core audience."

Series such equally Step Up: High H2o and Cobra Kai, the latter based on a movie franchise older than most YouTube stars, have "the potential to connect with a broader audience that's new to YouTube Ruddy," Daniels adds. "They're brands or talent that we believe have crossover appeal." That last phrase — "crossover appeal" — may be cardinal to Daniels's thinking: She doesn't want to choose betwixt YouTube natives and older viewers who've never heard of Rhett and Link. Take the Crimson'south comedic soap Youth & Consequences, which happens to feature a big-name YouTuber (Anna Akana) in a starring office, but its production values, plot, and supporting cast would exist right at home on Freeform or the CW. (And for Gen-Xers, it even features Melrose Place alum Marcia Cross in a recurring part.)

And while most of Red'southward originals to engagement seem to exist targeted at very young millennials (and fifty-fifty mail service-millennials), Daniels leaves no doubt she likewise wants audiences onetime enough to call back the Clinton assistants — and, eventually, a breakthrough series like Hulu's The Handmaid'due south Tale or Amazon's Transparent.  "Do I want a evidence that's going to drive subscription and be in the Zeitgeist and accept people talking about it? Damn right, I practise!" Daniels laughs when asked about Red's goals. Simply she merely every bit quickly cautions confronting expecting too much too fast. "And I've built — or had to rebuild — services and brands before," Daniels explains. "Information technology takes time to build that brand to a place where you lot feel similar you lot are really taking off. In time, I'd like to see usa offer shows that appeal to [the broader adults 18–49 demo]. But what you're seeing us do right at present is focus on the heavy user of YouTube, who tends to be a trivial chip younger. That's a smart place for the states to start as a strategy." By yr's terminate, Daniels says Scarlet volition release more than 30 new projects — a mix of scripted and reality shows, as well as some characteristic-length films — on top of the 50 originals already on the service.

Daniels spent decades working for old-school outlets like Trick, MTV, and the dearly departed WB network. Back and so, her life was ruled by the tyranny of the nightly Nielsen report card: Shows lived or died based on ratings, and decisions about what kinds of shows to make were based on what kinds of shows had rated well in the past. Daniels is now free from the misery of trying to go millions of viewers to lookout man a show inside a brusk amount of fourth dimension, simply that doesn't mean she'southward stopped looking at numbers. "Data does play a large function in evaluating these shows," she says. "There's a broad global funnel at YouTube to appeal to … so we tin target dissimilar aspects of the funnel for unlike shows."

Relying on digital information to assist guide programming decisions isn't a new strategy, of course. Netflix famously gave House of Cards a 2-season order without so much as a pilot episode because its streaming stats suggested audiences were really into the kinds of thrillers Cards director David Fincher made. In the example of Cherry, Daniels and her team can rely on the incredibly deep veins of information provided by its reported base of one.v billion monthly users. "We know from our search data that titles like Step Upwardly and Karate Kid are extremely popular on YouTube," Daniels says. "Karate Kid–related content has been watched over i billion times on our platform." Similarly, since "trip the light fantastic is an incredibly pop genre on YouTube … we knew there was a big dance community that would be excited most Stride Upward." Daniels, like Netflix and Amazon execs, is quick to note that while information "helps us brand smart decisions," gut instinct and choosing the right creative talent are notwithstanding disquisitional to programming choices. "I'm besides looking at things that can enhance the make — things that resonate with viewers, things that we sense an excitement and real interest for," she says. "Nosotros're looking for a lot of unlike metrics, simply all of the metrics ultimately point to: Do nosotros call back this is a positive addition to YouTube Red originals?"

A few weeks ago, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki fabricated headlines in the tech world when she told journalist Kara Swisher that, while the company has been decorated making a slew of original serial, Scarlet "is a service that is actually a music service." Understandably, that prompted speculation that perhaps Google was bankroll abroad from the premium video content infinite, or at the very least, minimizing its importance. Daniels, nevertheless, says Wojcicki was doing no such thing. "That quote was taken out of context a flake," she says. "She was articulating that there is an entire music service as part of YouTube Cherry-red, and that she's confident that people are willing to pay for music simply like they want to pay for originals. It'south no cloak-and-dagger that music is a really of import part of YouTube, and combined with the original focus, it will continue to drive success."

While some tech bloggers might argue otherwise, Daniels's caption seems logical. As information technology is, 1 of Red's main rivals — Amazon Prime Video — has long bundled its Television receiver offerings inside a package of other offerings (two-24-hour interval package delivery, streaming music, video-game downloads). Similarly, dissimilar Netflix, Blood-red isn't trying to woo subscribers simply by promising them new episodes of Cobra Kai or Step Up. "We're looking for YouTube Ruddy to starting time to feel like a smashing value proposition to consumers — a premium music service and premium content and advertisement-free [videos]," Daniels says, adding that her task is to "make sure that we have plenty premium content that appeals to the YouTube Cerise user" and — perhaps even more importantly — convinces folks who use the free version of YouTube to upgrade to Red. "If YouTube for most people stands for short-course, user-generated content, and I think it does, we desire to showtime getting out the discussion that we offer a service in YouTube Ruby-red that offers that, plus more."

Daniels says the "favorite prove I've worked on and so far here" is Witness World Broad, Katy Perry's four-day livestream event from last summertime. The stunt, a promotion for Perry'southward album release, put the pop superstar in her studio/business firm, where her every move (including visits from other celebs) was documented with cameras. "It wasn't my idea; Katy Perry gets all the credit," Daniels says. "That evidence tapped into everything that YouTube does best. We're a global platform, and she had global fans. She wanted to have interactivity, which it did. You could basically design your own viewing of the content. Information technology [was] not a lean-back, network feel. That'southward the matter that'southward the most super cool near YouTube — the engaged viewer. Television is a ane-way street. YouTube is definitely two-way street, and I love that about this place."

To be certain, YouTube doesn't take a complete monopoly on interactivity. CBS's Big Brother has been giving audiences a similarly immersive experience for more than 15 years. But the company is certainly improve able to deploy interactivity on a regular basis than CBS, and on a bigger scale (given its international attain). Daniels wouldn't get too specific most her plans for interactive programming, except to say that CBS's pioneering reality prove could be at least something of an inspiration for a time to come unscripted project. "I'k in the very early stages of evolution with a big producer, but I can't say who yet," she says.  "We are looking into a very original, new version of a Large Brother type of feel."

From mean solar day one, Netflix has been dogmatic about releasing full seasons of all its serial (save talk shows) all at once; Amazon somewhen settled on a similar tactic. For at present, YouTube Blood-red'due south release philosophy is a lot like Hulu's. "We don't have a go-to rule of thumb about this," Daniels says. "We're nevertheless building the service, and we're experimenting to see what works best. Then we've taken a evidence-by-bear witness, case-by-case basis. We want to do what's best for the prove." And then far, Cherry's most high-profile scripted shows (Stride Upwards, Youth & Consequences) have been given binge releases, while it'south gone with weekly episodes for reality shows such as Ultimate Trek.

Where Red has been more innovative is with its use of the free YouTube platform to drive audiences to Red series. In the instance of Step Up, "we knew from testing that [viewers] were the about engaged after episode four," Daniels says. "So we offered four complimentary episodes in front of the paywall. You had to subscribe to see the rest." Since launching in January, Daniels says the airplane pilot for Step Up has generated over nine million views, "and the subscription [conversion] rate has been really promising as well." (She declined to specify how many viewers signed up for the paid service afterwards watching the prove). Red is continuing the use of complimentary previews with other originals: The first ii half-hr episodes of Youth & Consequences don't require a Blood-red subscription, and information technology's likely at to the lowest degree one episode of Cobra Kai will be free to stream.

As for the marketing of specific shows, Carmine then far has avoided the massive campaigns some streaming networks have put backside large projects. And rather than weeks or fifty-fifty months of prerelease hype, Daniels says the "bulk of the marketing will be released the mean solar day or day later, or perhaps fifty-fifty the week later on the prove is released and then that when we're telling viewers to become cheque out the show, they tin click and get check out the show." Red has bent that dominion a fleck, nonetheless, with Cobra Kai, releasing several buzzy trailers over the last few weeks in advance of the May launch. That makes sense, given the decades-old, cantankerous-generational appeal of the Karate Kid movies — and the interest of the original films' two big stars. Simply even with Cobra Kai, Daniels says much of Ruby-red's marketing volition all the same be focused on the overall service rather than specific projects. "It's going to be more about building upward YouTube Red as a destination," she says.

*A previous version of this story said that Stephen Gould's Impulse is a time-travel thriller. It is actually about teleportation.

YouTube Red: 5 Things to Know Virtually the Streaming Service