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Would you pay $9.99 per month for an ad-free YouTube?

Google revealed the much-anticipated subscription service YouTube Red official at an event in Los Angeles today.

YouTube Red, which will launch officially on October 28, will be a subscription-based service that provides ad-free videos on YouTube to subscribers.

Apart from that, members will get options to download videos for offline viewing and unlimited access to videos, whatever that means.

The ad-free experience is available cross-platform which means that members won't see advertisement on the desktop and mobile devices, provided that they are logged in to their account.YouTube Red mobile app

Google plans to push the service with exclusive content including original series featuring popular YouTube celebrities like PewDiePie and MatPat but also completely new series like "Fight of the Living Dead" or "A Trip to Unicorn Island".  These productions will launch early next year.

List of original series announced today:

  1. Scare PewDiePie: PewDiePie encounters "terrifying situations" inspired by his favorite video games.
  2. Sing It!: A new comedy show that makes fun of "reality singing competitions".
  3. Lazer Team: A feature-length action comedy.
  4. A Trip to Unicorn Island: A feature-length movie about the "life and journey of Lilly Singh".
  5. Untitled Joey Graceffa project: A new "reality adventure series".
  6. 360 Project with MatPat of Game Theory: Real-life science behind video games show.
  7. Single by 30: A "romantic drama series"
  8. Untitled College Humor project: A "dark and comedic look at the absurdity of Internet culture".
  9. Fight of the Living Dead: A "social experiment reality show".
  10. I Am Tobuscus: A satiric show about the life of a new-age celebrity.

Google's long-term plan is to establish YouTube as a direct competitor to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and others, and the first batch of series and movies it announced today are just "some of the original series and movies" it is debuting with YouTube Red.

The new YouTube Music app that Google announced today as well will also be ad-free for YouTube Red subscribers and available as an ad-supported version for non-subscribers.

YouTube Red in a nutshell

  1. Subscription costs $9.99 per month (iOS 12.99 per month).
  2. Subscribers get an ad-free experience on YouTube on the desktop and on mobiles.
  3. Subscribers do get ad-free access to the new YouTube Music app as well.
  4. Additional benefits include options to save videos and playlists for offline watching, access to original series, and background playback.

Closing Words

The main question is this: would you pay $9.99 per month to access YouTube ad-free. Is the exclusive content that you get another incentive that may persuade you to give it a try?

If you compare YouTube's offering to that of Netflix, you may come to the conclusion that it is not offering that much for the money right now especially since it will launch its first batch of original series next year and not on launch.

There are other questions that need to be answered. Will YouTube Red be geo-locked?

Now You: What's your first impression of YouTube Red?

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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