It looks like YouTube is about to offer subscriptions so you can avoid seeing ads with your videos. This came out Monday at the Code Mobile conference from Susan Wojcicki who took over YouTube this year.
“A paid, ad-free subscription version of YouTube, in addition to the existing ad-supported offering, would give users more choice and work well in a world where viewers are increasingly watching videos through apps on mobile devices,” said Susan Wojcicki.
Its near term, Ms. Wojcicki said. There are going to be cases where people are going to say, I dont want to see the ads.
“There are lots of mobile apps where users can choose to be exposed to ads, or choose to pay to avoid that,” she added. Thats actually a pretty interesting model because its giving users choice, she said. Were thinking about how to give users options.
We rolled out the ability for an individual channel to do a subscription, Ms. Wojcicki said. Weve also been thinking about other ways that it might make sense for us. If you look at media over time most of them have both ads and subscriptions.
As even major networks like HBO and TBS are offering full episodes as a taste of new seasons or shows. The ability to see these shows with out the typical commercials would be huge.
Well YouTube did not directly address the idea of a YouTube wide paid subscription it is clear that the main focus is buying content directly form content creators. Many YouTubers have created successful business on YouTube. James Rolfe the Angry Video Game Nerd is a great example of someone who works full time supporting a family off of what was created on YouTube.
The ability to have a option for $2-5 a month depending on the channel to see the content ad-free could be very attractive to many loyal fans. Allowing them to support their favorite content creator and still not have to see ads.
If YouTube offered a site wide ad-free subscription it would have to offer some type of payment to content creators. As many of the major channels are full time jobs the removal of ads would leave a large part of their monthly revenue.
You will still be ability to watch ads for content you do not wish to pay for sounds like a great middle ground. This is a plan many have asked Hulu to consider and now YouTube is about to offer it. Hopefully more sites and services will consider both a free ad supported version and a ad-free paid version.