Actress/producer Anna Akana is one of the more recognizable personalities on YouTube, with her channel on the video-streaming service, generating more than 211 million video views and nearly 2 million subscribers since launching in 2011. In March, the 28-year-old Asian-American actress made the transition from YouTube star to scripted series executive producer and star with the launch of the high school-themed dramedy series Youth & Consequences on the YouTube Red subscription digital video service.

Akana spoke with Multichannel News about her new series, her YouTube celebrity and the increasing opportunities for Asian-Americans and other people of color in front of and behind the camera in a multiplatform video environment. Here’s an edited version of the conversation.

MCN: How big a jump was it to move from creating and building your own YouTube brand to now developing and starring in an original scripted series?
Anna Akana: It’s been honestly a dream come true. Not only because I love the script that Jason [Ubaldi] wrote, but also because of YouTube being an awesome creative partner in giving us a traditional TV-level budget and being really being hands-off during the creative process and trusting us to make a show that works. So it’s been a huge step for me and I feel like it’s been what I’ve been working toward — to be the lead of a show that I’m really proud of and love.

MCN: What is it about the series that hooked you?
AA: When you first read the script or you first see it, you’re like, “Oh, she’s a mean girl and she’s a bitch — I’ve seen this before,” but that gets totally turned on its head at the end of the pilot script, when you find out she’s been benevolent this whole time. I thought it was so fascinating to have a girl who is really comfortable being disliked and being in power, but really doing things to get a sense of justice and for her idea of what’s good and right. I also love that it was a female ensemble cast who was really complex and empowered characters, and I just loved how kind of like the guys were accessories in the show.

MCN: The cast of Youth & Consequences is also very diverse. How important was that for you?
AA: A diverse cast was 100% important to me. As an Asian-American woman I faced a lot of stereotypical typecasting roles in auditions, and I wanted the show to reflect the real world. I wanted to have people of color on the show and have a voice for the LGBTQ community.

MCN: Given the increase in distribution platforms, are there now more opportunities for Asian-Americans to tell their stories from a cultural perspective?
AA: One hundred percent yes. I mean, when YouTube first started its main stars were predominantly Asian. It was Natalie Tran and Michelle Phan, and people were asking why are all the stars on You- Tube Asian? I think it’s because we lacked such mainstream representation that when we saw a face that looked like us doing comedy or doing lifestyle videos we were drawn to it. It was like, “Oh my God, there is someone who looks like me finally on the screen.” And so I think it’s provided such a huge voice for people of all kinds of backgrounds and cultures that normally don’t get the kind of representation on TV due to barriers.

MCN: Are you starting to see the same opportunities in the traditional television arena?
AA: I Think so. The change is slow, but we see shows like Fresh Off the Boat and Doctor Ken on the air. So there are changes being made. It’s slow moving, but surely it’s going to happen.

MCN: Throughout your years on YouTube, did you ever foresee a day where the platform would provide opportunities for content creators such as yourself to go beyond videoblogs and into scripted content?
AA: A lot of us who have been on the platform for a long time did see this coming in terms of creating longer-form, narrative content the moment Netflix took off. We were like, “It’s only a matter of time until there are competing platforms for streaming services because people want to consume content on their own time in a convenient place for them.” As far as me ever getting to have that opportunity, I was small potatoes at the time so I wasn’t entirely sure. But I think what I brought to the table was the fact that I’m a classically trained actor. I started in standup and acting, and YouTube is just the thing that took off for me. 

Award-winning actresses Susan Sarandon and Edie Falco will star in YouTube Red’s original film Vulture Club, debuting later this year.

Sarandon, Falco and Matt Bomer star in the Maram Keshavarz-directed film, which follows a veteran emergency room nurse who turns to a community of journalists and advocates looking to help free her journalist son from capture by a terrorist group.

The movie will premiere in theaters later this year before debuting on the YouTube Red subscription service. Vulture Club is produced by YouTube in association with MaraKesh Films and is executive produced by Anna Gerb, Neal Dodson and J.C. Chandor. 

“This emotional drama grapples with relevant issues journalists around the world face today. Maryam Keshavarz lends her powerful perspective as an Iranian-American filmmaker, and Susan Sarandon’s moving performance immediately drew us into this compelling film,” said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content, YouTube. “We are excited to be in business with Anna Gerb, Neal Dodson, and J.C. Chandor and work with the extremely talented cast of Vulture Club."

TiVo Corp. said Google is using its Music Metadata to provide select artist metadata and artist images for a set of services – YouTube Red, YouTube Music and Google Play Music.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but TiVo, which is the process of seeking out alternatives that could lead to a sale or take the company private, said the metadata will enable YouTube and Google to create a more immersive experience by connecting connect music videos to an artist’s imagery and other related songs.

RELATED: TiVo ‘Exploring All Alternatives’ to Drive Shareholder Value

TiVo noted that its Music Metadata offering covers 34 million tracks worldwide, and is refreshed daily.

This deal also comes just weeks after TiVo announced an expanded, multi-year patent license agreement with Google that includes YouTube TV, the OTT TV service launched last April.

“In addition to the incredible range of our collection, TiVo Music Metadata has a unique ability to go beyond traditional tracking, linking musical library content with other relevant artist or album info, which provides a wider span of context for the listener,” Roz Ho, TiVo’s senior vice president and general manager, consumer and metadata, said in a statement.

RELATED: How Machine Learning Is Changing the Game for Content Metadata

Comcast confirmed that YouTube TV, the live TV package to be launched later this year by the Google-owned OTT video giant, won’t be included with the YouTube app that Comcast will launch on X1 set-tops later this year.

RELATED: YouTube Makes Virtual MVPD Play

While YouTube TV and its lineup of live TV channels and a cloud DVR, won’t be part of that integration, X1 will tie-in access to the regular YouTube catalog, including content from YouTube Red subscription VOD service.

RELATED: Comcast to Stream YouTube on X1 Boxes

That’s not a huge surprise, considering that consumers with X1 already have a pay TV service from Comcast, so therefore likely won’t want or need the slimmed-down YouTube TV service, which will include a lineup of more than 40 channels, including access to local broadcast TV networks in some major markets early on.

But Comcast’s coming integration of Sling TV will allow access to the core Sling Blue and Sling Orange packages, though that agreement is focused primarily on providing X1 customers with access to Sling TV’s array of international TV packages. 

RELATED: Sling TV to Stream to Comcast’s X1 Platform

While getting people to pay for something they are used to getting for free is a steep hill to climb for any new service, YouTube Red has managed to gather about 1.5 million paying subscriber as of “late summer” and another 1 million who are on board for free trials, according to The Verge, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with the service.

YouTube, which launched the $9.99 per month service last October (followed by the addition of a music app the next month and the intro of original fare in February 2016), isn’t confirming the sub numbers in the report, but said it’s pleased with the results.

RELATED: Can YouTube Red Make Some Green? 

“We’re pleased with momentum behind YouTube Red and we’re seeing healthy growth of members each month,” a YouTube spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “While we don't release or comment on speculative numbers, we’re seeing strong engagement of the service in the four countries we’ve launched, leading us to invest in more originals series and movies for 2017 and increased marketing of YouTube Music.”

While some reports hold that 1.5 million paying subs is dissapointing progress because it looks like a drop into YouTube’s massive bucket of 1 billion monthly users, it also appears to be holding its own, at least when compared to how some other relatively new OTT subscription services have fared so far. 

CBS All Access (launched in the fall of 2014) and the Showtime OTT offering (unleashed last July)  had more than 2 million subs between them at the end of Q2. HBO Now enjoyed its “strongest quarter yet” in Q2 and is probably getting a nice boost from Westworld, but didn’t release a new figure (HBO Now ended 2015 with about 800,000 subs).

Last week, Starz said its OTT offerings (via the digital distribution deal with Amazon that launched late last year and the standalone subscription OTT app launched in April) are approaching 1 million subs.

So by those yardsticks, YouTube Red appears to be in pretty good company, even if they aren’t perfect apples-to-apples comparisons -- Starz, Showtime, and HBO are all using OTT to bring incremental growth to their existing, already highly penetrated sub bases by going after groups like cord-cutters and broadband-only homes. 

But it’s still relatively early days for YouTube Red, which is also using originals (it’ll have released more than 20 original series and movies by year-end) and plans to reach other markets around the globe to help push the subscription needle. 

Notably, YouTube Red’s initial focus has been on the U.S., and has since expanded into New Zealand, Australia and Mexico, with more countries to be added to the mix next year. What’s interesting to me is that 80% of the views from YouTube’s free, ad-supported platform come from outside the U.S….so there’s still a lot of the globe that Red hasn’t tapped into yet.

According to YouTube, its original series are proving to be one of the leading drivers for Red subscriptions, claiming that viewership for them are rivalling some cable shows in the US.

And despite what’s YouTube has been able to achieve (or hasn't, depending on your expectations) with Red so far, it also appears that major programmers like CBS have enough faith in YouTube’s platform and its reach to sign on for a new virtual MVPD service reportedly to be called YouTube Unplugged.

RELATED: YouTube Developing ‘Unplugged’ OTT-TV Service

Digital video streaming service YouTube will enter the scripted series arena in 2017 with the development of dance-themed series Step Up.

The series, based on the 2006 film the same name, will be executively produced by the film’s producers Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gibgot and Meredith Milton, as well as Step Up stars Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum, said network officials.

The Lionsgate produced film will debut exclusively as the first original scripted series on YouTube Red next year, according to the service.

“I’ve been a fan of the Step Up movies for years and always believed the films would translate into an awesome original series,” said Susanne Daniels, YouTube Global Head of Original Content in a statement. “We know that dance is a hugely successful global category on YouTube, so I’m excited to have a series rooted in such an enormously popular genre on our platform.”

YouTube is expanding the content in its Red subscription service with a pair of new offerings. 

The feature length documentary, working title Untitled Gigi Gorgeous Project, comes from video maker Gigi Gorgeous and Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple, and will debut later this year. The film “explores the intimate journey of a transgender woman from her childhood to life as a successful media personality.”

The original series Foursome, from AwesomenessTV, stars Jenn McAllister (JennxPenn) as “an undateable sophomore” whose older brother makes sure no guy comes near her. Andie must rely on the unbreakable bond she has with her three best friends.

Read more at B&C. 

LAS VEGAS — Weather-induced travel snafus didn’t stop tens of thousands of techno-geeks from pouring into Sin City last week for CES, where the biggest corporate bets were placed on the Internet of Things, over-the-top video services, and 4K/Ultra HD.

If the the Consumer Technology Association’s annual gadget-fest had one big, central theme, it was the IoT, a market that spans home security and automation, OTT devices, and connected wearables, and even “smart” clothing.

CES Unveiled, an event that gives show-goers a glimpse of what was to be on display during the week, was dominated by dozens of IoT startups, all looking to cut their slice of a market that will create a record-setting $287 billion in retail revenue in 2016, according to the CTA’s latest forecast.

That’s the kind of market traction that would justify former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers’s 2014 prediction that the IoT is poised to become a $19 trillion market over the next decade, with pickup by the private and public sectors, entire cities and, perhaps, entire countries.

Aside from the ongoing debate about data and device security, the big challenge in the years ahead will be securing IoT systems and building software that enables these multitudes of connected devices and sensors to work together. Panasonic is one of many companies taking a stab at that by introducing ÔRA, an “adaptive” smart home platform designed to work with connected products from a wide range of suppliers and underlying operating systems.

VR GETS MORE REAL

The market for virtual reality — including the technology that runs it and the content that will fuel it — is a small-yet-rapidly-growing segment, and its presence was felt strongly at CES.

Consumers appear to have an appetite for VR. Interest in new VR products will cause sales to surge 500% in 2016 and reach 1.2 million units sold, the CTA predicted. The trade group also said it expects VR to generate $540 million in revenues this year, up 440% from 2015.

Some 70% of U.S. consumers have played video games, an area expected to drive VR adoption, according to a new study from Frank N. Magid Associates, and nearly one-quarter of consumers said they are “very interested” in having a virtual reality experience at home. Another 23% said they were interested.

Those numbers are part of the reason why Comcast has been splashing cash on VR startups such as Baobab, Next- VR, and AltspaceVR, and why Discovery Communications has launched a division dedicated to VR content development.

The biggest VR news last week came by way of Oculus, the VR startup acquired by Facebook in 2014 for a cool $2 billion. Timed with the event, Oculus began to take preorders on its flagship VR platform, the Oculus Rift, on Wednesday (Jan. 6).

The company also set the starting price — $599 — for a package that includes the Oculus headset, sensor, remote, required cables, an Xbox One controller and two games.

Oculus Rift-PC bundles retail starting at $1,499. Oculus will offer its wares in 20 countries out of the chute.

By comparison, the Samsung Gear VR mobile headset (also powered by Oculus’s technology) costs $99, but must be paired with a compatible Samsung smartphone, which puts the all-in price in the same neighborhood as the single-purpose Oculus Rift.

There’s much more to come, as high-end VR platforms from Sony (for the PlayStation 4) and HTC (Vive) hit the market later this year.

“There’s nothing gimmicky about VR,” said Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro, the maker of wearable cameras that’s working with Google on a consumer-focused, 360-degree camera array called Odyssey.

OTT SPREADS EVERYWHERE

Over-the-top video is no longer an emerging niche, but a mainstream phenomenon with an increasingly global reach.

For evidence of that look no further than Netflix, which last week said it had flipped the switch on its subscription OTT video service in 130 more countries, expanding to almost 200. Vietnam, India, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Saudi Arabia are among the countries that have joined the list, while China remains notably absent.

“Today, you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings declared in his CES keynote last Wednesday (Jan. 6).

The expansion will surely give a massive boost to Netflix’s subscriber base and the reach of its originals. Netflix, which was available in 60 countries heading into CES, has about 69.17 million subscribers worldwide, including 43.18 million in the U.S. Netflix will produce more than 600 hours of original programming this year, chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

The adoption and reach of digital video continues to have a profound effect on the overall TV market, changing the way consumers watch.

“Digital will win the decade,” Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, said during his keynote last Thursday (Jan. 7). He predicted that digital video will “replace” TV, in part because it’s immersive in ways that traditional TV can’t be, is “endlessly diverse” and is inherently mobile.

“I don’t think digital video will grow linearly; I think it will grow exponentially,” Kyncl added, holding fast to a prediction that digital formats will present 75% of the total viewing pie by 2020.

Kyncl likened YouTube’s trajectory to the rise of cable TV, where networks such as ESPN, CNN, AMC and MTV first emerged as niche players but eventually expanded into original content.

YouTube is at a “similar inflection point,” he said, as it ups investment in originals for its new YouTube Red subscription service, which is also rumored to be seeking TV licensing deals.

But there are also some differences. YouTube “is a democratic platform … anyone can create something everyone can watch,” he said.

YouTube has yet to announce a multichannel TV offering that replicates pay TV, but others are pursuing services and strategies aimed at the small but growing cord-cutting trend.

Add to that list Vidgo, an Atlanta-based startup that hopes to crack the pay TV code by offering low-cost bundles of broadcast TV channels and VOD via an over-the-top distribution platform.

Taking aim at a market now targeted by services such as Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, Vidgo said it will offer a set of packages with live, linear TV and video-on-demand, including premium services, local broadcast TV and sports, to a range of smart TVs, tablets and smartphones.

Looking a bit like a virtual multichannel video programming distributor, Vidgo said its service will be free of credit checks or contracts. It plans to launch in 15 U.S. markets in the first half of 2016 (including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta), and achieve national coverage by Q4 2016.

For now, Vidgo is keeping a lid on its channel lineups and pricing, noting it will release those details within the next 45 days. But the startup has some pay TV expertise behind it. Robert Kostensky, formerly of DirecTV, is Vidgo’s president and co-founder, and Shane Cannon, president of Cannon Satellite TV (a Dish Network authorized dealer), is its chief marketing officer. Vidgo’s parent company is Gotham Media, a company that runs a content delivery network and develops streaming apps for platforms such as iOS, Android and Roku.

TUNER TONNAGE

OTT services topped the video agenda last week, but traditional pay TV continues to fight for growth and relevance.

Dish Network used this year’s CES to unleash a super- sized whole-home DVR, the Hopper 3, a device that supports 4K video and packs 16 tuners and 2 Terabytes of storage.

Dish unveiled its latest flagship as the satellite-TV provider looks to amp up its pay TV subscriber numbers. It lost 23,000 video subscribers in the third quarter of 2015, ending the period with 13.91 million.

The Hopper 3 will carry forward elements from earlier-generation Hoppers, including integrated Sling Media place-shifting technology and AutoHop ad-skipping capability, but will sport a faster processor (the Broadcom BCM7445 Ultra HD TV Home Gateway chip) that will result in quicker response times for Dish’s coming “touch” remote, which is still in beta.

The 16-tuner device will enable customers to attach up to 6 “Joey” client devices, meaning that seven different shows can be watched in the home at the same time. Dish customers will also be able to watch and record up to 16 shows at once.

That capability also allows Dish to one-up Cablevision Systems’s multiroom DVR, as well as a multidevice X1 setup Comcast is testing that enables customers to record up to 15 shows at once. Verizon FiOS TV’s Quantum TV platform lets users record up to 10 shows at once when they combine the functions of two Arris-made Verizon Media Servers.

On the Ultra HD front, the Hopper 3 supports 4K content up to 60 frames per second. Early on, Dish will offer 4K fare from Sony Pictures, The Orchard and Mance Media, as well as Netflix’s 4K library.

Dish also has other apps in mind for 4K, as the Hopper 3 will let subs with 4K TVs stitch four live HD (1080p) streams onto the TV screen at the same time. That capability — something Dish refers to as “Sports Bar Mode” — decodes four HD programs and stitches them into one stream that can be displayed on the 4K screen.

Splitting and combining those screens is another way to “show off the power of 4K,” Vivek Khemka, Dish’s recently promoted executive vice president and chief technology officer, said.

Dish also introduced the Hopper Go, a $99 USB-connected device with 64 Gigabytes of flash memory that lets subs transfer up to 100 hours of DVR-recorded content for offline viewing on a mobile device. Dish subs with the Hopper 2 or Hopper 3 will be able to link up to five mobile devices to the Hopper Go via WiFi, and Android tablet and smartphone users will have the added option of connecting via a USB cable.

4K MATURING

There were also signs everywhere that 4K video is rapidly maturing as consumer adoption of the platform grows and the underlying technology ecosystem starts to wrap itself around standards.

About 34% of U.S. homes will have a 4K TV by 2019, according to research firm IHS. On the technical end, the UHD Alliance, an industry organization that includes DirecTV and Rogers Communications among its backers, launched a consumer-facing logo and brand that identifies services, content and devices that adhere to technical specifications that deliver a “premium” Ultra HD experience.

The group will use and license an “Ultra HD Premium” logo to identify those products and services that deliver agreed-upon metrics such as High Dynamic Range, peak luminance, audio, black levels and wide color gamut, among others.

The initial specs cover TVs (other devices are currently “under consideration”), distribution and content.

Panasonic’s DX90 series TV sets are the first to be certified with the UHD Premium label, Julie Bauer, president of Panasonic consumer electronics and chief marketing officer, said at a CES press event here.

YouTube rolled out Red, its subscription-based OTT service in late October, and it stirred up controversy right out of the chute when some free YouTube channels, including several from ESPN, went dark due to some digital rights issues that surfaced in the wake of the new offering.

That’s still an issue for YouTube, but The Wall Street Journal  has shed some light on what the OTT giant has in mind next as it looks to stoke more interest in the new $9.99/month offering, reporting that YouTube is talking to studios and other content providers about licensing TV shows and movies.

If those talks bear fruit, then it follows that YouTube could create an SVOD service that could compete with Netflix, the current king of the category, as well as Amazon and Hulu.

OTT, whether from subscription or free-ad-supported models, is already fragmenting how video is consumed, so it’s hard to say how well a super-charged version of YouTube Red would resonate with consumers.

Can YouTube put together something that’s new and different enough to move the needle enough get existing Netflix or Hulu subs to switch services or add yet another service to their monthly OTT video nut?  Is there enough of the pie to sustain everyone?

YouTube’s purported plan has already drawn skepticism.  VideoNuze’s Will Richmond, for example, argues that “the world does not need another place to watch TV shows online. We already have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, TV networks’ full episode players/apps, TV Everywhere services, HBO Now, iTunes, Google Play, etc, the list goes on and on.”

It’s hard not to agree. While YouTube is a huge brand, particularly for shorter-form fare, and is backed by a company with virtually bottomless pockets, I believe it will be extremely difficult for them to differentiate in the market rapidly. It would have to be a long-game play.

And if they shoot for exclusive digital deals, it’s very likely that they’ll have to overpay, which could then cause YouTube to raise its price…and that’ll make it even more challenging for them to get subs on board, and stay there. And Richmond also points out that the best content is already spoken for by other digital distributors.

YouTube could go the same route as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu and try to stand apart with original content. And that option certainly isn’t cheap, either, and there’s no guarantee of success given how much great TV – from OTT and traditional programmers – is already flooding the market. 

Can YouTube Red create a receipe for success in the saturated digital video market, or is just about any effort now viewed as too little too late? 

The buzz about TV Everywhere is all around us. It has been hailed as a potential savior against cord-cutting and a possible magnet for millennials.

That would be great news if TV Everywhere were, indeed, everywhere. But in fact, it isn’t, and may never be, in my opinion. In spite of the dedicated investments of the industry’s most forward-looking companies, let’s face it: The free, fast, fat Internet access that you need to stream the latest Walking Dead, to binge on Game of Thrones, to watch live sports, will never reach every corner of the telecommunications universe.

Here are some facts: An estimated 60% of tablet owners don’t have a data plan. That means the minute you leave the house most of us have to rely on hotspots.

I don’t know about you, but I hate having to pay again for WiFi access at the airport, in hotels, even on the train. And just try logging in — chances are, if you can get past the login screen, the service will deliver you into buffering hell. Free WiFi is just as bad, or maybe worse.

Sure, I could ditch the tablet and use my smartphone for my video fix. However, a typical cellphone data plan is limited to only 2 Gigabytes. Streaming one hour of HD content will eat that up before I’ve sent a single email. I could, of course, watch four hours of standard-definition content, but I seriously run the risk of data overages — so count me out.

A much better solution is downloading to take content with you on-the-go. Consumers are accustomed to “pulling” content — they do it every time they log onto our video-on-demand portals. Let’s allow them to pull more of the content they already have paid for onto their mobile device.

We already have the rights for in-home viewing, and the technology exists to protect rights holders and restrict the content to a one-time out-of-home view.

To sum it all up: Downloading has become the table stakes for mobile video — Amazon Prime Instant Video and now YouTube Red both enable offline viewing for their content. Consumers expect ultimate viewing flexibility and programmers and service providers need to allow downloading to meet those expectations.

We can either get on the bus, or land under it, because the bus of mobile video and downloading by consumers is inevitably arriving, and it’s picking up speed. Together, let’s invest in true content everywhere.

Melani Griffith is executive vice president, business development, and a board member at Penthera.

YouTube outlined its plans for entering the online VOD subscription model fray, as the video giant announced a premium version of its site, YouTube Red, during an executive briefing Wednesday.

Priced at $9.99 a month and available beginning Oct. 28, YouTube Red will allow users to surf the site completely ad-free, across multiple sources, from desktop to mobile. Original programming and movies will also be available to YouTube Red subscribers, beginning next year.  

Leveraging the sites growing stable of digital stars, the original programming runs a fairly large gauntlet, including Scare PewDiePie, a reality-comedy show featuring Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, getting thrown into scary, video game-inspired gags and situations. The Walking Dead’s Skybound Entertainment and Maker Studios are producing.

Also on the slate are a scripted spoof of the reality music genre called Sing It! from Fine Bros Entertainment and Mandeville Films; a zombie reality show from Alpine Labs called Fight of the Living Dead, a feature length concert film from YouTube singer/comedian Lilly Singh, as well as romantic drama from Wong Fu Productions and New Form Digital entitled Single by 30.