YouTube is working on choose-your-own-adventure-style shows, and hopes the new format will boost ad sales and viewership figures.
It’s interesting to see YouTube experiment with the gamification of more traditional media, given it’s only been a few months since fellow media outfit Netflix began doing the same.
The streaming giant made waves over the holidays by launching an interactive episode of Black Mirror called Bandersnatch, and has since unveiled another interactive series called You vs. Wild — which asks viewers to guide seasoned survivalist Bear Grylls through a series of dangerous situations.
In terms of YouTube’s own ambitions, Bloomblerg reports that a new business unit led by Ben Relles — who’d previously been charged with creating unscripted programs — will oversee the development of the company’s new interactive shows.
Relles’ first task will be to assess the best ways to engage viewers in “multilayered and interactive stories,” which is a problem Netflix solved using a custom script-writing tool called Branch Manager.