Google announced a new premium video service called YouTube Red earlier today that will allow users to stream content ad-free for $9.99 per month for Android and Web users, and $12.99 for iOS users (since Apple charges a 30 percent premium).
Described as "a new membership designed to provide you with the ultimate YouTube experience," those who pay for the YouTube Red subscription will be able to use its ad-free features on other platforms such as the YouTube Gaming app and the YouTube Music app that will launch soon. Members will be able to watch videos without interruptions, save videos and songs on their mobile devices to watch offline and keep music playing in the background when in other apps. Plus, since Google is the parent company of YouTube, members will be given a free Google Play Music subscription to sweeten the deal.
YouTube Red will also release original series and movies from YouTube creators, like the reality series Scare PewDiePie starting YouTube star Felix Kjellberg by Maker Studios and the producers of The Walking Dead.
While members may discover more YouTube stars using the platform, these personalities must first agree to the site's revenue deal, or else their content will be hidden.
While this type of service has been rumored to be announced for some time, we can't help but wonder why Google decided to give it this name.
The first thing that may come to your mind when you think about YouTube is its red logo, so it only makes sense that the company would choose the obvious.
"Choosing a name for a product is a challenging thing," a YouTube executive said during a press Q&A. "As we talked to users and fans in our studies, the term 'red' is often associated with YouTube. It has a lot of meaning in terms of love and the red carpet."
While the name is fitting, you might still wonder the company would call it Red, especially since there is an adult explicit site that exists with a similar name — talk about bad branding.
However, the YouTube exec said they aren't "too worried about that other site," and the name may work in YouTube's favor since it may get lots of people who are searching the terms "red" and "tube." Then again, search engines will most likely pull up YouTube Red before the other site since Google has a higher SEO ranking.
YouTube users can try a month-free trial of Red starting on Oct. 28.
Source: The Next Web