YouTube needs to do more than just remove advertisements and support offline playback if its wants people to start paying for its new subscription service, which is why the company is working on its own original content. According to a report from Variety, the company teased three new movies at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, which it produced by tapping into the wealth of content creators it has. It’s not the only company doing this either, as it was just a week or so ago that a YouTube superstar known as Miranda Sings announced that she’s getting her own show on Netflix.
YouTube’s plans to bring its first slate of original programming to its recently launched subscription service, YouTube Red, have hit a new milestone: The streaming service unveiled sneak peeks from three new films Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, according to Variety. Programming from the slate is reportedly going to be made available to users in February, so festival attendees got an early look at the content. In addition to the sneak peak clips, there was a panel featuring Susanne Daniels, YouTube Red’s global head of original content; Matt Kaplan, president of Awesomeness Films, which has multiple films coming to YouTube, including Dance Camp; Scott Winn, director of A Trip to Unicorn Island, which follows the world tour of YouTube star Lily Singh (also known as ||Superwoman||); and Gavin Free, who stars in the sci-fi comedy Lazer Team and is the creative director of Rooster Teeth. The panel spoke about the projects they worked on and YouTube’s hope that the existing fan bases will be willing to pay the subscription fee to watch. “Putting the movie straight into the existing fan base will hopefully spread it further than any other platform could,” said Free.
