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AdAge is reporting than in an effort to lure more content producers (along with the subsequent viewers and advertisers that follow) away from traditional television, YouTube is supposedly getting ready to launch paid subscription on specific channels.
The subscriptions won’t be too pricey—at least for right now. Based on applications YouTube has reportedly asked a small group of unnamed channels to submit, the first group of paid channels will probably somewhere between £0.60 and £3 a month.
YouTube knows users probably won’t take kindly to having to pay for the content they’ve been watching for free for years, and they’re urging potential partners to consider their audience’s reactions. But as people continue to shift away from traditional television, they might not have a choice, whether they like it or not. [AdAge]
YouTube Axing 60 Per Cent of Its Original Content Channels
Would You Pay For an Ad-Free YouTube?
YouTube Channels You Have to Pay for Are Here
This might work if they introduce the pay channels in a new premium section with decent quality controls so they are more like TV programs/films. If they just slap prices on last weeks free stuff I reckon it’ll fall flat pretty quickly.
without shadow of a doubt, this will be the route they’ll follow. I can see it being a really good platform for independent films and dramas, but definitely not something you could visibly do for the more factual, opinion-based content which is so prolific on YouTube right now.
feasibly* oops.
I don’t think they need quality control, when people pay for premium stuff the quality will control itself. This will work well for many people that current use youtube to advertise paid content elsewhere. A good exaple is profession tutorial sites. Sites that do HD video in producing music, design, 3D, etc. These sites often give out free content on YouTube to advertise a paid content site, now they can offer a simple subscription to YouTube (Google account) users, running all the promotion and services from a easy to manage base. That is a hell of a opportunity.
Then you have sport. A company like Sky could charge for streams of football and other sports that they have exclusion contracts for, with no overhead costs.
Or popular shows with a international following can sell a subscription for the latest, rather than being two series behind in your region.
Or independent TV companies offering a small fee for the full back catalogue.
Then you have popular regular stuff that is already free with adverts, so a few channels of a similar ilk can band together and offer a premium channel with more content that is ad free. 50p a month to watch what you was always going to watch on a regular basis, and then more content, minus the ads, then that isn’t a bad offer.
Then you have new business models, think of something like more up to the moment Dave TV channel that is international. A company could get a deal on a bunch of great TV from around the world and charge a small fee. And then endless of other future unseen things can come about.
A big deal. And considering what people pay already for exclusive content (£25-75 per month for sky content), asking few pence to a few pounds for exclusive content that is perfect for you isn’t a big ask, rather than pay £40 for everything and the kitchen sink.
They might not need quality control in the end but I think they will in the beginning, having a load of junk on there which you only find out about after you’ve paid would really put a damper on things.
Who is going to pay for a subscription without knowing what they are getting? I am guessing any site that would charge would have sample content of the service, or a solid track record, so you know what you are paying for. Only a fool would pay upfront for a channel on a random chance it may prove entertaining.
It is quite surprising they never managed to do this ages ago. They already had the “full-film” channels, but they were always full of ancient or rubbish content.
In effect they’ve missed massive opportunities, because their info structure was there. All they needed to do was obtain licenses back in the day, and I bet there wouldn’t have been a Netflix or such…
They still could buy Netflix out
But it would be all too easy to make some quick cash with a good sample and not much else. I just think Youtube need to handle it a bit more carefully to be a sucess. People wont get burnt too many times before they give up.
I understand where you are coming from, they do need to be careful. But it is easy to get around such things, like 30 day refunds. But I’m sure this will be policed well like having a submission process to see if content is of premium standard before activation. But I get a feeling only big content producers with investment budgets will take advantage of this from the start, along with a few established popular indies.
Nothing worth paying for on Youtube…
I imagine introducing a paid premium service is addressing that issue. That is like saying that, nothing worth buying in that big empty warehouse.
Going by how comments in YouTube are at the moment by entitled people, I can just imagine how they will be should they ever pay for channels.
I await with fresh popcorn at hand at the bloodbath to follow.
If the content is good (and advert free) then sure, if not go go gadget torrent!
If they actually fix their servers to be able to cope with demand then maybe this will work. At this current time, I can’t stream 240p. Dunno how they can ever expect me to be willing to pay for that!
Surely that’s a problem on your end? I’ve never had problems streaming below 720p, and that usually works fine (unless all 5 of us are watching videos online…).
I can download from other internet servers at ~13Mbps at a time when youtube isn’t going fast atall.
When it’s offpeak times, YouTube goes fast.
That is defo a problem on your end. I have a rubbish connection and I can stream Youtube better than BBC. The one thing you can’t diss Youtube over is their technology, especially considering the scope.
Paying to watch some talentless idiot make an arse of himself on camera? People already do that in watching reality TV shows.
My first thought is f*ck that sh*t. Youtube already imposes ads in your videos. It has always been free and should remain so or I’ll jump over to metacafe.
Hey ho! The thin edge of the wedge. I read some years ago that we should not be surprised if we find ourselves paying for most content on the web…