YouTube reportedly making future exclusive content free with ads from 2020

YouTube will reportedly make all its upcoming original programming free and ad-supported from 2020.

That’ll mean you won’t need a YouTube Premium subscription to watch the Google-owned video sharing site’s original shows and movies, but you’ll have to sit through ads, Reuters reported Tuesday.

YouTube said it’s making all Originals free with ads, and it’ll provide free ‘windows’ to watch previously released shows like Origin and Cobra Kai (which currently require a subscription). 

Typically, ‘windows’ means content is released behind a paywall and moves outside it after a period of time. The company suggested that the windowing will depend on the type of content.

Premium — which launched as YouTube Red in 2015 — costs $11.99 (AU$14.99, £11.99) per month, and the company just started offering a student discount that cuts the price in half. The company didn’t reveal how many subscribers it has.

‘As we look to 2019, we will continue to invest in scripted programming and shift to make our YouTube Originals ad supported to meet the growing demand of a more global fanbase,’ a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

‘This next phase of our Originals strategy will expand the audience of our YouTube Original creators, and provide advertisers with incredible content that reaches the YouTube Generation.’