YouTube is abandoning its originals play, chief business officer Robert Kyncl announced Tuesday. It will though continue to fund content that is part of its Black Voices and YouTube Kinds programs. Existing contracts with shows and creators will be honored too.
YouTube Originals Winding Down
In the statement posted to Twitter, Mr. Kyncl said that “YTO [YouTube Originals] played an integral role in growing the YouTube creator economy.” He added that “there are over 2M creators in the YouTube Partner Program and our creator community has never been more successful: we’ve paid more than U$30B to creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years.” Mr. Kyncl explained that this grown means the company’s “investments can make a greater impact on even more creators when applied towards other initiatives.”
An update on YouTube Originals: pic.twitter.com/PixhgZ2yhU
— Robert Kyncl (@rkyncl) January 18, 2022
Key Exec Leaving
Furthermore, it was revealed that Susanne Daniels, global head of original content, will leave YouTube in March. In his statement, Mr. Kyncl thanked the departing exec “for her vision, creativity and leadership.”
YouTube Originals has been launched in 2016. It killed off scripted TV and movies in 2018. However, some projects made it onto other platforms, including Cobra Kai, now available on Netflix.