YouTube Red original programming is coming: Three film sneak peeks screened at Sundance

By Stephanie Topacio Long January 25, 2016

google merging play music youtube red — Image used with permission by copyright holder

YouTube’s plans to bring its first slate of original programming to its recently launched subscription service, YouTube Red, have hit a new milestone: The streaming service unveiled sneak peeks from three new films Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, according to Variety.

Programming from the slate is reportedly going to be made available to users in February, so festival attendees got an early look at the content. In addition to the sneak peak clips, there was a panel featuring Susanne Daniels, YouTube Red’s global head of original content; Matt Kaplan, president of Awesomeness Films, which has multiple films coming to YouTube, including Dance Camp; Scott Winn, director of A Trip to Unicorn Island, which follows the world tour of YouTube star Lilly Singh (also known as ||Superwoman||); and Gavin Free, who stars in the sci-fi comedy Lazer Team and is the creative director of Rooster Teeth.

The panel spoke about the projects they worked on and YouTube’s hope that the existing fan bases will be willing to pay the subscription fee to watch. “Putting the movie straight into the existing fan base will hopefully spread it further than any other platform could,” said Free.

They also discussed finding success on YouTube and how the platform has allowed people to share their talent. “YouTube is open game for anyone in the world to become a next-generation media star,” said Daniels.

The Google-owned service isn’t alone in mining the video-sharing website for talent. Netflix has also been curious to see if it can find success with a YouTube personality, recently turning to Colleen Ballinger-Evans, who stars in a series of videos as a fictional character named Miranda Sings, for a new scripted show.

YouTube Red’s first original films will be available to subscribers as early as February.

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Stephanie Topacio Long

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Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…

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