Here's what YouTube Red's $10 per month subscription gets you (hint: a lot)
On Tuesday, Google announced YouTube Red, a $10 per month subscription version of the world’s largest streaming video service. It’s launching on October 28 in the United States.
Beyond just removing all advertising from YouTube—including banners, pre-roll videos, mid-roll videos, search ads, homepage ads, and overlays—the service also offers a grab-bag of other benefits. Here’s a rundown of what else YouTube Red actually gets you:
As for the lack of advertising, it’ll apply to both YouTube proper and YouTube Gaming, Google’s answer to the popular game streaming service Twitch. The only case where ads can slip through is when they’re embedded directly into a video by the content creator, as YouTube has no control over those. In other words, if a video announces that it’s about to break for a word from its sponsor, you’ll still see that ad in the stream.
One more disclaimer: YouTube already offers some paid content in the form of individual channel subscriptions, movie rentals, and pay-per-view purchases. You won’t get a free ride for any of those things with YouTube Red.
So who’s YouTube Red for At the moment, Google is aiming it at music enthusiasts. For the same price as Apple Music and Spotify, you get a comparable streaming music service, plus a whole bunch of extra benefits.
But in the long-term, it’s possible that YouTube Red could become more of a competitor to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. YouTube doesn’t have the same type of premium content, but don’t forget there’s a whole generation of viewers who care far more about Minecraft videos than they do about Better Call Saul. YouTube Red could become their video service of choice as they start to have more disposable income.