YouTube Original Shows Will Be Made Free to Watch This Year

YouTube Original Shows Will Be Made Free to Watch This Year

With a lot of video streaming services amping up their game with original creations, Google / YouTube isn’t one to take the fight lying down. It appears that YouTube Original shows will be made free to watch sometime this year.

This was announced by YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl at their annual Brandcast event. Normally, people would have to pay USD $12 per month for YouTube Premium in order to watch the shows so to make up for it, there will be advertisements for the free version.

One such example is Cobra Kai, where the first season will be made available to watch completely free of charge from 29th August to 11th September 2019. After 11th September, the second season will air, with new episodes added on a weekly basis.

While every other media company is racing to put their content behind the paywall, we’re headed in the opposite direction by making our original content available for free.

At the moment, there’s no word yet on other YouTube Original shows being given the same treatment. We’re expected to hear more about ad-supported shows at a later date.

Pokdepinion: It’s certainly a ballsy move but then again, people know the platform as a place that has free videos anyway. My only concern is if the ads will be running a bit too much or not. Guess we’ll have to wait and see when it’s finally implemented. I’ve still yet to watch Pewdiepie’s one yet.