Variety reports that Google’s original video content group, YouTube Originals, is dead. The YouTube division was founded six years ago to make exclusive, original content for the pay-per-month YouTube Premium service. Now the group is being shuttered, and YouTube’s global head of original content, Susanne Daniels, is leaving the company in March.
Just after the news broke, YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl posted a statement on Twitter:
An update on YouTube Originals: pic.twitter.com/PixhgZ2yhU
— Robert Kyncl (@rkyncl) January 18, 2022
YouTube is the web’s de facto video site, but Google still tends to chase any hot new web video trend that pops up. YouTube Shorts is a clone of TikTok. YouTube Gaming is a clone of Twitch. YouTube Stores were meant as an answer to Snapchat. YouTube Originals was a swipe at Netflix, which, back in 2016, was turning heads with award-winning shows like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black. Back then, the $12-per-month YouTube Premium started life as “YouTube Red,” and its offerings were called YouTube Red Originals.
At first, YouTube took a decidedly YouTube spin on original content and threw big budgets at the platform’s star content creators, resulting in shows like Scare PewDiePie, created by the executive producers of The Walking Dead. YouTube Originals eventually pivoted into more Hollywood-style content and saw some success in 2018 with The Karate Kid sequel Cobra Kai.
We’ve seen this story about a million times covering products by YouTube’s parent company, Google: after a new initiative does not achieve immediate, incredible success, Google starts scaling back its plans after about two years. By the end of 2018, reports surfaced that YouTube was scaling back its scripted video plans, and that YouTube Originals would go ad-supported, just like normal YouTube video. YouTube Originals’ more successful projects moved on to other video services, with Netflix picking up Cobra Kai for seasons 3 and 4.
Today, YouTube Premium is still around for $12 a month. The main perks are ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music, while the mobile app gets background playback and the ability to download content for offline use.
