Netflix and Amazon Prime will soon have a competitor as YouTube Red is planning to upgrade its streaming service by acquiring the rights to TV series and movies.

The officials of YouTube are reportedly exploring the possibility of negotiating licenses for content and are talking to Hollywood executives including Hollywood studios and other production companies. However, the exact TV shows and movies that YouTube Red wishes to stream, is not yet known, The Wall Street Journal reports.

If YouTube Red manages to bring its new plan into execution, the Google-based application will be able to boost its new subscription service, thus, acting as a threat for its counterparts Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

YouTube’s hold in the video streaming market is quite strong as it provides the service to over a billion people per day. According to Forbes, YouTube users now spend close to 40 minutes on the site in every mobile session. However, the default in the new business model for YouTube is that firm is making its users pay for the new services. YouTube charges $9.99 for the monthly subscription of its Red service.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Susanne Daniels and Kelly Merryman are the key officials involved in the bolstering process. Susanne is the former programming chief of MTV and joined YouTube in the summer, while, Kelly Merryman is a former Netflix content executive and YouTube in late 2014. Intrerestingly, their reporting chief is another expert from Netflix and the current chief business officer of YouTube Robert Kyncl.

Convincing people to pay for its ad-free videos and streaming music service will be a mammoth task for YouTube Red as YouTube has been a free service to the viewers since 2007 as is supported by advertisements.

However, YouTube has strategised a way out and will be following the footsteps of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. It was in October that YouTube announced its plan scto start nearly 10 of its own movies and series starting in 2016 but only the Red subscribers will be able to avail the services.

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