YouTube taking on Netflix, looking to licence TV, movie, content

YouTube is set to compete with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video and begun preliminary talks to licence current movie and television content for live streaming.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the streaming service will be part of YouTube Red which launched in October initially in the US only. Charging US$9.99 a month, it already features ad-free videos, Play Music, and offline streaming through smartphones and computers. It’s already working premium-only original content from next year, in a move to further tap its huge commercial potential.

“Netflix, Amazon and Hulu license many older movies and TV series that have already run elsewhere, while YouTube is focusing on new material,” the WSJ revealed.

YouTube has 1 billion users. Like most of its rivals, it is aware that subscription-based revenue will exceed ad-supported services by 2020.

At this stage it is not known which studios YouTube executives have been talking to. But they are, according to the WSJ, working with Google Play partners to strike effective deals.

The WSJ surmised, “The shows or movies may be streamed exclusively on YouTube Red, or could be released through traditional channels like movie theaters, cable networks and DVDs alongside the YouTube subscription service.

“YouTube is still deciding how much content to license, but it is eager to have a robust collection of original programming and licensed programming in 2016 and beyond.”

YouTube was originally created in February 2005 by young entrepreneurs Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim as a way to swap videos, YouTube was bought by Google for $US1.65 billion in 2006 and is now the world’s third most visited website after Google itself and Facebook. In 2014 YouTube said that 300 hours of new videos were uploaded to the site every minute, most of it from outside the U.S.