YouTube offers thousands of free TV episodes – with ads

YouTube on Wednesday began streaming some 4,000 television episodes from shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Heartland to US viewers as the site tries to capture viewers in a fiercely competitive market.

The Google-owned video platform said that popular television shows along with films from major studios will be available, with ads, on YouTube using smart televisions, mobile devices or web browsers.

YouTube was a pioneer in the trend to accessing video-on-demand using the internet, starting with clips uploaded and shared by users.

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It faces an array of competitors, ranging from streaming television service Netflix based on subscriptions to ad-supported offerings from Peacock, Roku, Tubi and other rivals.

Films and shows will be added weekly, with the line-up of movies to include Gone in Sixty Seconds and Runaway Bride, according to the YouTube team.

YouTube cited Nielsen findings that more than 135 million people in the United States watched YouTube videos using televisions connected to the internet in December of last year.

“YouTube is at the forefront of the consumer shift to (connected TV) viewership as the top ad-supported streaming platform,” the video-sharing platform said in a post.

Child safety features for Google, YouTube

Eight months ago, Google unveiled a series of online safety measures for children including a private setting for videos uploaded by teens and a safeguard for ads shown to users under 18.

The new features, which come amid heightened concerns about online child exploitation and safety at a time of growing internet usage during the global pandemic, affect Google’s YouTube video platform as well its online services such as search and Google Assistant.

“As kids and teens spend more time online, parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policy makers are rightly concerned about how to keep them safe,” said Google product and user experience director Mindy Brooks.

“We engage with these groups regularly, and share these concerns.”