YouTube is in secret talks with numerous Australian streaming companies about directly selling subscriptions through a new offering called YouTube A La Carte.
YouTube is hoping to strike a number of deals with Australian broadcasters that will see YouTube become the portal for numerous streaming services.
The AFR reports that the Google-owned companies has held closed door talks with Stan-owner Nine and Foxtel over the past weeks .
It’s an ambitious play that would see YouTube attempting to be the gateway app for all television streaming – the ‘home screen’ that viewers would go through to access multiple services.
Customers to YouTube A La Carte would benefit from a single bill for the services, and possible savings from bundling together their subscriptions. The offering echoes Amazon Channels, a similar product available in the US, as well as Optus’ Subhub, which offers numerous subscription to streaming services on the one discounted bill.
Australians currently have more than 23 million television streaming subscriptions, according to a recent study from Telsyte, with 70 per cent of households signed up to more than one service.
It remains to be seen whether Australians have the desire to consolidate them all in the wake of the Optus data breach — especially under a company like Google,.
