Skip to main content

YouTube is developing its own interactive original shows, new slate reportedly coming next month

According to a report today from Bloomberg, YouTube is planning a new type of content for its original programming. Soon, YouTube is going to be releasing original interactive content for choose-your-own-adventure shows.

After Netflix’s Bandersnatch popularized the format this year, Google is developing a new unit within YouTube which will work on interactive shows and live specials for YouTube to increase both viewers and ad sales.

This new unit will be headed up by Ben Relles who has worked at YouTube for eight years and is “still exploring” how the content would work.

Susanne Daniels tells Bloomberg that YouTube “now [has] amazing new tools and opportunities to create and tell multilayered and interactive stories” and that “Ben has an intuitive and experienced understanding of how the platform can enhance content, making him the perfect choice to develop this exciting new division.”

YouTube is developing choose-your-own-adventure-style shows, exploring a new storytelling format that could increase viewers and ad sales for the world’s largest video website…

YouTube has already experimented with interactive advertisements. But interactive programming — with multiple storylines — requires a far larger investment to ensure choices load without buffering. Netflix has built technology that remembers the choices users make over the course of a story.

Apparently, YouTube is restructuring parts of its staff for this new strategy. This also comes just a few weeks after reports that YouTube had scaled back its original content efforts. Still, Bloomberg says that YouTube will announce a new slate of original shows in the next few weeks.

More on YouTube:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications