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Remember those rumours that YouTube was working on rolling out some paid subscription channels? According to Android Police, code in the recently updated YouTube app shows that Pay-To-View is in the works. It’s just a matter of when.
The code pretty much speaks for itself:
< string name=”paid_channel_subscribe_message”>You can only subscribe to this paid channel on your computer.< /string>
< string name=”paid_channel_unsubscribe_message”>You can only unsubscribe from this paid channel on your computer.< /string>
According to previous rumours, the subscriptions should be relatively cheap, up to £3 a month. Still, paying anything for something that was previously free can sting, but maybe the pay channels will really bring some high-quality content. We’ll have to wait and see, and the wait may not be long. [Android Police]
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I would not say £3 is cheap for a youtube channel.
Monetizing Youtube is not a bad idea but they HAVE to get the pricing right. Here in Germany Youtube is already borked thanks to GEMA and loud 30 second adverts on every video. If content starts moving to an expensive subscription model then they will find themselves with no users.
The content will have to be extremely good warrant a £3 a month subscription.
I personally think that free services like Youtube, blogs, news sites (like Gizmodo) etc. should introduce a micro-donation model whereby people can donate small amounts of money to content providers and producers as and when they want. I would happily donate to well written interesting articles on here.
Think of it like this, a tv channel make a youtube account and uploads all there tv shows and episodes to it as they air, those are the sort of channels you will have to pay for.
Google would not let just anyone set up a paid channel.
That won’t happen. TV networks do not want to upload their shows to any service that is not their own and even that requires a subscription most of the time.
I am with Pleasethink on their micro-donation model. Watch the content and if you like it, you can donate on your terms as and when you can afford it.
As far as I’m aware there is only one micro-donation system currently in use although nobody has heard of it. It’s called Flattr and is made by one of the guys from the PirateBay. In my opinion though, their model is not flexible or fair enough.
In Flattr model you setup an account with them and credit money to it and you set and amount that you want to give per month (let’s say £10) and then when you click on a Flattr button on a content producers website their website is then logged on your account. At the end of the month the amount of money you set is then divided equally between all the sites you clicked on.
(http://flattr.com/)
I completely agree with the ethic of the system but I would change a few details of how it is implemented. I think users need to be given more flexibility as to how much they want to donate to each content provider. Some content might be excellent and some might be just ok, and this needs to be represented in how much you want to donate to them.
There also needs to be a system that allows content providers AND content creators to be rewarded (i.e. Gizmodo is a content provider and the Gizmodo writers are content creators).
I think they will let anyone setup a paid channel. But TV channel channels would probably be worth £3 a month actually.
In fact if google could get enough tv channels on-board they could use it to beat Apple out of the gate with their TV service. Imagine if all tv channels were available on youtube in 1080p with all their shows and you could have an ‘À la carte’ type subscription model where you chose what channels you want, each at £3 a month and they could offer an ‘all-you-can-eat’ type subscription for say £15 a month.
With that kind of model they could very easily put Netflix and other TV streaming services out of business.
Bye bye Youtube
Opportunity knocks for potential rivals.
Just film the film and bit torrent it
Not sure how I feel considering I have just started uploading YouTube again recently.
Will it be the Channel or Google/YouTube who gets the money from the subscriptions? Or will it be a split?
YouTube of all people should understand that you can’t put a paywall on the internet. Their site was BUILT on pirated TV shows, music videos and films. Good luck to them trying to charge people.
If they will remove adds I can pay £3 a month!