Scoop! YouTube signs up megastars for top pay channel

YouTube has signed up the world’s highest-paid performer, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Doug Liman, the director of The Bourne Identity, to make shows for the subscription service, it said this week.

The Google-owned video giant said that former wrestler Johnson, who shot to fame in The Fast and the Furious films, will create a show called Lifeline, which will be about an insurance company that sends its agents 33 days forward in time to prevent the deaths of its customers.

Liman, who also directed Mr and Mrs Smith, will use youthful stars seen for his show Urge, which is about a young girl who finds she can teleport herself on YouTube.

Both shows will air YouTube Red, on its pay service.

YouTube content leader Susanne Daniels told Mipcom, the world’s biggest entertainment convention held that it was using data to give them what they want to see.

“Our thesis is straightforward. Identify YouTube’s top genres, and invest in the content buffs tell us they want. Quite simply, let our community drive our content,” she said.

YouTube Red was established in 2015 with set from such well-known YouTubers as the London-based Swede PewDiePie and the American Joey Graceffa.

It’s presently just obtainable in the US, Australia and New Zealand.