After failing to create its own premium content, YouTube would imagine itself as an aggregator of subscriptions to various third-party SVOD services. To do this, the platform would have planned to launch the Channel Store before the end of the year.
The world’s leading streaming video platform, YouTube and its 2 billion users is funded in two ways: advertising and subscriptions to YouTube Premium (€11.99 per month), for those who want to streamline their experience of these multiple ads that intersect the free experience.
With its experience, a flawless application and an unparalleled infrastructure for storing and broadcasting videos, the Google subsidiary could add a new string to its bow by becoming a marketing intermediary for SVOD services. A partner that we imagine that the main services on the market, from Netflix to Disney +, do not need, but which could make life easier for less established SVOD platforms that more specifically target user niches thanks to genre content.
A marketplace of SVOD services
This new system that would allow subscriptions to various streaming services directly through the YouTube application would be called the “Channel Store” according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, and could be launched by this fall in certain countries. Obviously, it is impossible at this stage to know the future partners, that is to say the services which will offer to subscribe via YouTube, but it is rumored that discussions have been opened with a good number of interested entertainment companies. .
The launch of the Channel Store would allow YouTube to take a share of each subscription generated from its platform, while partner streaming services would gain enormous visibility and the ability to easily reach a very large audience. Especially since many YouTube users already have a user account associated with a credit card, accelerating possible subscriptions that could be activated in just a few clicks.
The App Store business model
This new strategy would be in project for several years within YouTube. As early as 2020, it had been mentioned by some of its executives, referring to the marketing of third-party services on subscriptions, individually or in “bundles”. Thus, YouTube would never have considered the new video streaming services that have swarmed in recent years as competitors, but would have thought very early on of a way of coexisting with them that would be beneficial for everyone. Above all, YouTube has seen that the marketing of third-party services by renowned platforms has potential. As proof, in the United States, 4.5 million people have subscribed to HBO Max via Amazon Channels.
For YouTube, which for a time came up against the difficulty of creating sufficiently qualitative and addictive content to attract and retain paying users (we remember the YouTube Originals initiative which fizzled out), this extension to services third would be quite natural. After all, YouTube TV recently announced the arrival of dozens of free channels, while you can already rent and buy thousands of movies there. A smart way to end up establishing itself as the biggest online video platform by positioning itself above the fray. Provided of course that the SVOD services find an interest in donating part of their income to YouTube. For this, the Channel Store would have to quickly transform its potential into very real subscriptions.