Youtube launches "YouTube Originals" in India

YouTube has announced that it will soon roll out 'YouTube Originals' for the Indian users. The company has made this announcement via a press release. 'YouTube Originals' will be free to use and will support ads as of now. YouTube is also planning to offer a subscription plan for the same in the future. However, there is no specific timeline for mentioned as to when this will be available for the users.

The 'YouTube Originals' was first announced back in 2016. This is a premium service which comes bundled with the YouTube Premium and is currently available in 17 countries around the world. The service has been rumored to be launched in India for quite some time now, and with YouTube's official announcement we now know that this service will finally make its way for the users in India.

YouTube has also mentioned that it will invest in made-for-India programming. The company has already authorized its first original show which is specifically made for the Indian audience. YouTube has partnered up with the Oscar-winning musician, AR Rehman for the same. Both of them are working on a new program which is called 'ARRived' and is expected to be aired in India over the period of coming weeks.

YouTube had also previously tried its hand with a Hindi sport-show which was called as 'Un-cricket'. Susan Daniels, YouTube's country global head of original programming had earlier said that the show has performed "beyond expectations".

Satya Raghavan, Head of Entertainment at YouTube India said that due to the data revolution over the past couple of years has resulted in the boom in online entertainment in the country. As per Raghavan, YouTube has benefited majorly with this trend, which has received a staggering 245 million unique users per month with the daily active viewer base growing at 100 percent on a yearly basis.

Considering the popularity of Netflix and Prime Videos which already has its own original content for the Indian consumers, it will be interesting to see how well YouTube Originals performs and how good content will it offer for the Indian audience.