YouTube Said to Plan ‘Unplugged’ Online TV Service for 2017

YouTube is working on a paid subscription service called Unplugged that would offer customers a bundle of cable TV channels streamed over the Internet, apparently. The project, for which YouTube has already overhauled its technical architecture, is one of the online video giant’s biggest priorities and is slated to debut apparently as soon as 2017.

YouTube executives have discussed these plans with most major media companies, including Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Viacom, Twenty-First Century Fox, and CBS, but have yet to secure any rights, apparently. YouTube, a unit of Alphabet’s main Google Internet business, is pursuing subscriptions for premium video to compliment the largest ad-supported video site in the world. YouTube introduced its first paid subscription service, Red, in the fall of 2015. Unplugged would bring more premium content onto YouTube’s web service and mobile apps, grabbing more viewing time and generating more non-advertising revenue.