How Demi Lovato's bombshell documentary boosts YouTube's 'virtuous cycle'

Demi Lovato chose Google’s (GOOGL) YouTube as the official home for her four-part docuseries, “Dancing with the Devil.” It details the singer’s near-fatal overdose in 2018, and the turbulent events that led to it.The bombshell documentary follows a similar path as Justin Bieber’s “Seasons,” Paris Hilton’s “This is Paris,” and Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman Diaries,” which also aired on the video-sharing platform.In 2017, YouTube released “Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated,” a documentary about Lovato’s life and career.But with traditional streamers from Netflix (NFLX) to Hulu (DIS) sinking their teeth into celebrity-focused programming, including “Surviving R. Kelly,” “Framing Britney Spears,” “Leaving Neverland” and “Operation Varsity Blues,” YouTube seems like a dark horse candidate for such a high-profile offering.Or is it?”YouTube has billions and billions of viewers,” Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi told Yahoo Finance. He added that although some YouTube Originals require a premium subscription, the platform “can help [celebrities] more aggressively promote some of the other things they may have in mind for the future such as attracting more subscribers to their own specific channels.”Currently, nearly 17 million people subscribe to Lovato’s YouTube channel. According to the company, over 2 billion logged-in users visit the YouTube platform each month, with visitors consuming…
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