YouTube has marked their arrival in the video subscription service with a new platform called YouTube Red. The Google-owned site will now allow users to fork out US$10 per month for the standard content without all of the ads.
As well as this, users of YouTube Red will have the ability to save videos for offline viewing and be able to keep videos playing in the background on mobile devices when switching between apps. First impressions of the service have seen it being compared with Netflix although Robert Kyncl who oversees business at YouTube says that this is not the case.
“Our membership service is completely different from what Netflix is. Every step that we have taken along the way is 180 completely the opposite of what Netflix is doing,” Kyncl told reporters.
Senior product manager Matt Leske added in a blog post that “for years, YouTube's fans have been telling us they want more - more choice when watching their favourite content, more ways to support their favourite creators and, above all, the option to watch their favourite videos uninterrupted.”