YouTube Red releases K-pop reality show "Run, Big Bang Scout"

YouTube Red's premium production for Korea is ready to watch. "Run, Big Bang Scout!" (달려라 빅뱅단) is pretty much the same fare as your average "reality" show where the cameras just follow along some K-pop artists as they do stuff.

Run, Big Bang Scout promo. Image: Google Korea

Pro:
It's slick and has spot-on Korean production value. You truly won't be able to tell that this was a YouTube production and not an actual broadcast show. It has that feeling like someone just uploaded the episode ripped from TV.

Con:
It's just another Korean reality entertainment TV show. Unless you're an especially huge Big Bang fan, this type of show is a dime a dozen. I was going to watch it through while eating dinner but couldn't take it. I'm no K-pop fan girl.

Bonus Pro:
The show is subtitled by YouTube into 22 (count them: 22!) different languages. Actual human made subtitles, not computer generated.

YouTube Red is 7,900 won/month in Korea, but new subscribers get 30 days free.

There will be six episodes of this show, with new ones coming out each Thursday. Here's the whole playlist, but remember just the first episode is free to watch:



More info on the YouTube Korea blog where you can find the full episode schedule/synopsis, and it even got a write-up in Variety, which said the same thing I did but in a nicer way:
The six-episode series, “Run, BigBang Scout!”, is a lighthearted reality show in the vein of popular Korean variety shows that place celebrities in unfamiliar surroundings.
BigBang Reality Show Premieres on YouTube Red | Variety

If you ask me, a Korean audience isn't the actual target here. Koreans can watch these shows on TV, on VOD, on NaverTV, anywhere, basically free. Why would they pay an extra $8/month to watch it on YouTube? I suspect the real demographic market here is the international K-pop fandom, who are always desperate and ravenous for these "candid" portraits of their favorite stars in subtitled form. Google must want a slice of that hysteria. I can't blame them: As I've admitted before, this blog's top post of all time was basically a link I posted to a Naver V downloader. But hey, if they're bringing decent content to a wider audience, why not?

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