YouTube Kids rolls out an ad-free option

YouTube Kids, the child-friendly version of YouTube’s service that launched last year and faced criticism for the way it handled advertisements, has today launched a version of the service that will offer parents the option to pay for an ad-free experience. Now, YouTube Kids will be bundled into the YouTube Red subscription program, a paid membership that offers a variety of features, including offline videos, background play and no paid ads.

Explains Google in an announcement, YouTube Red will now be extended to the YouTube Kids application, meaning kid videos can be saved for those times you don’t have a connection, songs can be sung along to even while using other apps, and paid advertisements will disappear.

For YouTube Red subscribers, these features also work in YouTube’s main application, as well as its standalone YouTube Music and Gaming apps, in addition to YouTube Kids. (The Kids app works with the Red subscription in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand for the time being, Google notes.)

That all sounds great, right? Well…

Removing paid advertisements from YouTube Kids by paying for a subscription doesn’t fully address the complaints some consumer watchdog organizations had with this children’s app. The issue was never really the paid, disclosed ads that appeared on the service. It was the subtler, paid endorsements that YouTube video creators didn’t disclose. It was the fact that kids could surface actual TV commercials when searching for a generic keyword, like “cookies,” and this wouldn’t be subject to YouTube’s paid advertisement guidelines.

It was the fact that big-name advertisers like Coca-Cola, GM, Oreo, Kellogg and others broke the pledge they made as members of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) to not serve ads to kids under 12, but skirted around this promise by way of using YouTube. On YouTube, they could again offer their TV commercials to young audiences, along with product placements and other promotional videos.

In other words, if you’re a parent considering buying the YouTube Red membership for the handy offline access and background play, that’s fine. But don’t be fooled into thinking this truly eliminates all the advertising on YouTube’s platform or in YouTube Kids.

CollegeHumor's new YouTube Red series pokes fun at all things Internet

Reporter's note: This is part of a series featuring each new original show or movie debuting on YouTube Red. The subscription streaming service's first slate of originals launched in February.

LOS ANGELES — Imagine a future where YouTubers fight to their deaths, "good old fashioned conversations" means two people silently texting each other and a person's place in society is determined by a Buzzfeed quiz. 

That's the dystopian backdrop of CollegeHumor's hilarious but dark new YouTube red series, Bad Internet, which launches on Wednesday.

The goal of the new 10-episode weekly series is to parody technological innovations and Internet phenomenons that dominate people's daily lives. 

"It really is a series built for the Internet," Sam Reich, CollegeHumor's Head of Video, toldMashable. "We know the Internet loves the Internet. This kind of meta self-referential thing really works. Something we love to do at CollegeHumor is take those little things and blow them up to the most unreasonable, high production value, epic proportions."

The first episode "Which of the Friends Are You?" — available for free on YouTube — follows a dystopic future society, divided into groups dictated by a Buzzfeed quiz. Then, a la Divergent, one young female heroine has the courage to overturn the whole system.

IMAGE: BUZZFEED SCREENSHOT

Each of the episodes feature a rotating ensemble cast of CollegeHumor talent and YouTube stars, including iJustine, Smosh (Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox), Will Arnett, Jack McBrayer, Jean Smart and Oscar Nunez.

Other technology topics made fun of in the series include Uber, Amazon, Hulu and even YouTube.

IMAGE: COLLEGEHUMOR/YOUTUBE

iJustine, aka Justine Ezarik, stars in the YouTube episode, where she finds herself in theHunger Games, but for YouTube stars.

"It's not like I want to be murdering my fellow YouTubers — the exposure is amazing," her character says in the show. 

The YouTube episode is especially meta, given that the series is for YouTube Red viewers. But CollegeHumor and participating cast members made sure to approach the topic cautiously, making sure to poke fun at but still not offend.

"You have to be able to make fun of yourself," Ezarik told Mashable. "My character was a combination of myself making fun of the sort of things I already say but as if I were a beauty guru on YouTube... it was a fun experience. I hope people enjoy it as much as I did."

The series was inspired by popular anthologies such as Twilight Zone, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and even Black Mirror on Netflix.

"Doing an anthology series has always been a kind of something in between a high priority and a dream for us," Reich said. 

The CollegeHumor team already meets on a regular basis to come up with sketch comedy ideas. This happened to be one of them.

Each episode idea has its own origin, however, with some being pitched over the course of the year and others coming from group brainstorms.

The creative process for the series began in October of last year, when the CollegeHumor team started writing. They shot half of the series before the holidays, and the other half after in January.

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But why launch the series on YouTube Red? 

For this type of project, the digital comedy platform knew it wanted to go big. Each episode is 10 to 11 minutes, a surge from the standard CollegeHumor video length of 3 to 4 minutes. Plus, production costs were also scaled up, given the bigger cast and wide variety of visual effects per episode.

"YouTube Red enables us to spend like a whole bunch more money that we’d probably not spend on our own," Reich said. "It lets us do something really ambitious."

Plus, it made sense given that YouTube is already a "huge part of CollegeHumor's business model," Reich said.

CollegeHumor has a whopping 10.8 million subscribers to its YouTube channel, which launched in 2006. 

"Years ago, we saw that our audience was picking up on YouTube in a way that made us stand out from our competitive set," Reich said. "We decided to double down on that and make YouTube really the primary means which we distribute video content. It paid off, YouTube has been really encouraging and supportive. This series represents one of our biggest partnerships with them."

Google may jump into the online TV game with a YouTube-based service

Another day, another streaming media service.

Google is reportedly readying its entry into the online TV industry with a YouTube service by the name of "Unplugged," which would feature a skinny bundle of TV channels.

Don't get too excited, as the new service is not terribly close to being ready. YouTube has no deals with any of the major TV production companies, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the service.

Google would be a major addition to what is becoming a very crowded field of companies vying to bring TV to consumers directly over the Internet. 

Just a few days ago, news broke that Hulu would be launching an online bundle of TV channels. Hulu confirmed those reports at its Newfront presentation on Wednesday. 

Hulu — and Google, assuming it actually happens — join Dish TV and Sony, which respectively offer Sling TV and Playstation Vue. Apple has reportedly also been working toward offering an online TV product.

A YouTube spokesperson said: "We don't comment on rumor or speculation."

YouTube's media ambitions have been growing in the past couple years. It's biggest move came in October 2015 with the launch of YouTube Red, its subscription service that also wrapped in streaming music and original video.

There's still a chance that YouTube is unable to strike the distribution deals necessary to launch the service. Bloomberg reported that it hopes to include broadcast networks as part of the package, a particularly difficult proposition as it requires working with a variety of local affiliates throughout the country.