An online marketplace for streaming services is now available through YouTube, the company announced Tuesday.
Key Details
- Primetime Channels will give users access to multiple streaming services including Showtime, Paramount+, and Starz—all through YouTube.
- The NBA is also coordinating with YouTube to allow its games to be streamed on the platform in the near future.
- Apple, Roku, and Amazon have similar offerings, giving consumers the opportunity to save some money by packaging streaming services.
- Not every streaming platform is participating in these package deals. Netflix is notably absent from all of these services.
Why it’s news
As the world’s most popular video-playing platform, YouTube’s partnership with these streaming platforms opens the door to opportunities that will both be convenient for users and beneficial for the companies involved.
With Primetime Channels, users can watch a trailer for a movie and easily switch to purchasing access to the movie itself through one of the streaming platforms.
Content watched on the streaming services will also contribute to YouTubes video algorithm.
Users won’t receive any discount by subscribing to the streaming services through YouTube. The main benefit will be convenience for the viewer.
Revenue from subscriptions and advertisements will be split between YouTube and the streaming services.
Backing up a bit
YouTube’s announcement comes at a time when the division of Alphabet is struggling to keep ad revenue up for the first time in the company’s history.
The video playing platform also has a paid subscription service called YouTube TV that has a package of cable TV channels. It has around 5 million subscriptions.
The platform also offers a subscription-based ad-free option. Revenue from this subscription is estimated to reach $9.1 billion this year, The Wall Street Journal reports, though Google doesn’t release reports for individual subscription businesses on the platform.