YouTube Red isn't the only digital video service to put YouTube stars at the forefront of its content. The media company Fullscreen launched its online video subscription service featuring shows that star YouTube personalities, including Grace Helbig and Shane Dawson. The ad-free subscription service will be free for the first month and then users can pay $4.99 per month to continue watching.
Fullscreen started out as a type of talent agency that worked with social media stars to secure ad-sponsored deals on free sites like Instagram. Fullscreen's founder George Strompolos told the BCC, "Social media is a great place to make quick, inexpensive content to engage a fanbase. But when it comes to longer form or premium productions, the economics of producing it on the free web just don't work out." Now, with the company's roster of more than 75,000 partners (many of which are from YouTube), it will create a "premium destination" with original content featuring a lot of online personalities that young people already know, as well as licensed shows and movies.
Fullscreen didn't waste time in going for the big stars on YouTube. Comedian and personality Shane Dawson of ShaneDawsonTV has a huge following of more than 7.3 million subscribers, one movie under his belt with another on the way, and a podcast he's been recording for the past three years. Fullscreen will take his Shane and Friends podcast and produce it in video format, so fans who want to watch Dawson and his cohost Jessie Buttafuoco interact with guests can do so, while others can still listen to the podcast for free on iTunes or Soundcloud.
Fullscreen will reboot Sid and Marty Krofft's 1970s series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl as a comedic show starring Grace Helbig (graciehinabox) and Hannah Hart (myHarto), respectively. Both women began their careers on YouTube—Hart is probably still best known as the slightly intoxicated host of the YouTube series "My Drunk Kitchen"—she then branched out into talk shows, book deals, and more. According to Variety, some of the licensed content on Fullscreen will include Dawson's Creek, Suburgatory, Saved by the Bell, and Daria.
It seems perplexing that YouTube hasn't snagged these stars and others like them to produce more original content on its subscription platform, YouTube Red. That ad-free video service does have shows with PewDiePie and the couple behind Prank vs Prank, as well as a full-length movie with Lilly "Superwoman" Singh. However, YouTube has mostly promoted Red as an ad-free version of YouTube—watch all your favorite shows, with or without an Internet connection, with no commercials and at your leisure. There's also the music component to YouTube Red, which lets subscribers listen to tracks off YouTube in audio mode with no ads. Original content was never really the big seller for YouTube Red, but that's not to say YouTube won't put more effort into original shows in the future.
Fullscreen has a long way to go before it becomes as well known as YouTube, but making deals with YouTube's biggest stars is a good way to gain that recognition. Many YouTube stars have stronger, more dedicated followings than some traditional celebrities do—and since they blast out new projects over all their social media channels, their fans will not miss them if they get involved with Fullscreen. Also, Fullscreen's $4.99-per-month price tag should be easier for teens and young people to swallow than YouTube Red's $9.99-per-month price. However, we'll have to wait and see if additional higher-quality video content will be enough to get young audiences to pay up.
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