YouTube Red recently launched as a new subscription service that offers ad-free videos and access to exclusive content on YouTube, and it now seems that it has bigger plans for the future.
The online video market is increasingly competitive and YouTube reportedly plans to add movie and TV streaming in an effort to boost interest in its subscription service.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that over the past few months, YouTube execs have been in talks with Hollywood studios and other production companies to discuss streaming rights for new content.
YouTube Red is reportedly looking to obtain licenses for premium content, but it remains unclear at this point just what movies or programs the $10-per-month service is looking to add.
"Susanne Daniels, the former programming chief of MTV who joined YouTube in the summer, and Kelly Merryman, a former Netflix content executive who joined YouTube in late 2014, are involved, one of the people said. They report to Robert Kyncl, another Netflix veteran who is now YouTube's chief business officer," the WSJ reveals.
The report further adds that these efforts seem to be in the early stages for now, and executives from a major Hollywood studio (unspecified) said they have not discusses any licensing content deals with YouTube yet.
Considering that YouTube has been ad-supported since 2007, allowing users to view free content, it has to come up with something really appealing if it wants to convince people to pay for the subscription service.
If these efforts are successful, YouTube would be able to better compete against popular subscription services such as Hulu, Amazon or Netflix, as the online video market keeps gaining momentum.
Online TV and video services are expected to generate $42 billion in global revenue by 2020, which would be more than double compared to the $19 billion estimated revenue recorded in 2014.
YouTube executives previously said that YouTube Red aims to focus on talent that rose to success on its site, as opposed to pursuing traditional stars to make movies and TV series for the subscription service, like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix did.
Lastly, the WSJ notes that YouTube is banking on the relationships Google Play has with movie studios and other owners of premium video content to discuss streaming deals.
