back to article YouTube channels at $1.99 per month could launch this week

Video streaming giant YouTube is nearly ready to begin offering some of its customers a subscription pricing model for their content channels, according to reports. Citing inside sources, the Financial Times claims the Google-owned service has been working on getting its subscription paywall up and running for months, and that …

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  1. Dan Paul
    Devil

    Ala Carte choices please...

    Please Youtube... PLEASE do not force people to take dross they do not want just so they can get the channels that they do want. Ala Carte pricng model works for me.

    That model is so ridiculous with Time Warner Cable and Comcast.

    Why should I have to pay for the 900 channels of sports when all I want are the News, History, Movie, Scyfy and Educational channels?

    Not to mention that digital TV is streaming TV and they need to do something to decrease the bandwidth usage. If they'd let me "delete" a channel, I would never open it and it's representative bandwidth would no longer be used by my IP address. Multiply that times millions of cable boxes and the bandwidth issue is solved.

    Then maybe Youtube can work out deals with the cable companies so they stop the traffic shaping that only affects Youtube and no other website I visit (Yes, I know that Youtube is partially responsible and needs better bandwidth themselves)

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Jamie Jones Silver badge
    Meh

    Maybe.....

    ..... when I can get truly unlimited broadband.

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Maybe.....

      And a competent ISP to manage it. I have to have a VPN account to get any sort of throughput, and it's not just YouTube, it's also NASA TV and a whole slew of other things.

      The network hauls butt when I turn VPN on, so they do have decent hardware, they've just buggered it beyond belief.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I love the BS they spout

    The press release is basically a woolly mouthed wrapper around "we can't make enough from annoying you with ads and selling your watching habits, so we're going to charge you extra".

    On the plus side, it appears there is a gap in the market now. Good.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Can't wait to pay $2 to watch Justin Bieber and Gangname Style

    And Chris Brown's tattoos.

    Errrr ... well maybe I'll just buy a couple of losing lottery tickets instead.

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      Re: Can't wait to pay $2 to watch Justin Bieber and Gangname Style

      Well, at least there's a (ultra)remote possibility of one of those tickets winning. Can't say the same for modern music videos...

  5. promytius
    Thumb Down

    NOT ON MY PC!

    Just another thing to avoid - like television.

    Google is MUCH stupider than you can possibly imagine - they'll see...

  6. Volvic

    I'm not sure that this statement is correct

    "Over the years, YouTube has been slowly evolving away from its original user-generated content model, toward one where the service plays host to a variety of slick, professional videos from well-funded creators. Most of the major Hollywood studios now have YouTube channels, as do TV networks ranging from HBO to the BBC."

    I think rather than pushing channels from established TV networks, movie studios or brands, YouTube have actually thrown a lot of cash at promoting and pushing homegrown video makers who are now producing their YouTube-exclusive shows and receiving ad revenue as their primary income. They flew loads of them to London for the Olympics last year, for example.

    There are people who now make slickly produced shows for a living, purely on YouTube and nowhere else.

    This subscription model feels like even more of a move away from the established brands being the big draws - it seems like they're trying to turn independent, YouTube-only content creators into established brands in their own right.

    1. Steven Raith

      Re: I'm not sure that this statement is correct

      Drive is a good example of this - if you want actual *proper* car reviews, particularly of performance or modified/custom cars, it walks all over Top Gear et al - because that kind of program simply wouldn't get the viewing figures on 'normal' TV.

      Chris Harris on Cars is always worth a watch if you like your things that go vroom vroom.

      On a semi related note, I'd probably pay a couple of quid a month to see Game Of Thrones at the same time it's available in the US, too.

      Really, really dependant on the content and how it's packaged for payment though.

      Steven R

      1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: I'm not sure that this statement is correct

        "it walks all over Top Gear et al"

        Top Gear is just an entertainment program these days, the Top Gear Mag seems to be the only place they do serious reviews these days (Even if the TV show does try to do a proper review it ends up with Ross Kemp stuck in the boot of a car somewhere in the channel).

        1. Steven Raith

          Re: I'm not sure that this statement is correct

          I don't mind Top Gear as entertainment, but as we both say, it's not really a car program any more, except by loose association.

          Fun, but I don't take anything on there seriously. As a result of that, I don't bother with TG mag either. Tend to stick to Evo.

  7. Arachnoid

    More cheaply made earwax

    Just what everybody despises......[Quote from Dads Army] "Were DOOMED I tel you DOOMED!"

  8. Joe 58

    I'm rather looking forward to this

    $1.99 a month for no ads? Sounds a bargain to me. I find the adverts annoying - more so when they're not skippable. I watch far more Youtube than I do BBC, so £1.30 a month for an advert free Youtube seems quite good value, to me.

    1. Esskay

      Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

      I don't mind the idea either - however I've not yet seen any confirmation that this will be ad-free, just that there will be "premium content" on 50 channels for 1.99. (happy to stand corrected)

    2. Grimster
      Facepalm

      Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

      Pay for no adverts? Just employ Chrome and adblock for free. Not seen a Youtube advert for a couple of years.

      Oh the irony!

      1. Nick Thompson

        Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

        Maybe some of us don't want to screw over the content creators?

      2. Wayland Sothcott 1

        Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

        Not seen any YouTube ads? That's amazing. On a standard PC browser they make you watch about 20 seconds of adverts before you can skip to the video. Chome blocks this?

        1. mickey mouse the fith

          Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

          "Not seen any YouTube ads? That's amazing. On a standard PC browser they make you watch about 20 seconds of adverts before you can skip to the video. Chome blocks this?"

          Yeah, I use firefox + adblock personally, but the chrome extension works just as well. Watching youtube on other peoples machines that dont have adblocking is actually painful. I dont think Id actually bother watching anything with all the popup and inserted adverts, its too distracting.

          Cheating creators out of ad revenue?, Couldnt give a fuck tbh, I hate intrusive online advertising in all its forms and I never, ever click on them, so they might as well not be there. The web in general is a much more pleasent experience with adblocking, nothing to ruin the atmos.

          1. Nick Thompson

            Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

            "Cheating creators out of ad revenue?, Couldnt give a fuck tbh"

            I wonder if you'd feel the same way if your employer took the same attitude to your paycheque.

            A 20 second advert, or 5 seconds to skip longer ones to watch several minutes of content isn't that bad. Now personally I hate adverts too, but I recognise that people need to be paid for their work. I'd much rather have the option of a sensibly priced subscription to youtube as a whole which disables ads.

            1. mickey mouse the fith

              Re: I'm rather looking forward to this

              "A 20 second advert, or 5 seconds to skip longer ones to watch several minutes of content isn't that bad."

              No, but having intrusive popups overlayed on the video every few minutes ruins the video as its a major distraction, and fumbling for the close icon takes your concentration away from the atmos of the video. Also, the ads i have seen when using a browser without adblocking are either for products im not interested in or products that arnt even relevent to the u.k. They seem to loop the same ones a lot as well, just to angry up the blood that little bit more.

              And as I said, I never click on ads out of principle, and activlely avoid products whose adverts get on my wick, so why should anyone care if i block them?

              I would go as far as saying that adverts actually ruin youtube, I just wouldnt bother with it if I couldnt adblock.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Micropayments

    uboob could go the micropayment way-- let users bank some cash, then pay a small amount for each video.

    The newspapers failed at this model (2.95 for each article? and it takes longer to pay for the article than to read it? epic fail) At 5-15 cents / view maybe.... much more and I won't be viewing, lets face it, a lot of the uboob stuff is complete dross, and you can't tell till too late. OTOH, some are quite good and useful, worth every penny of a dime.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunately...

    ...my ISP (which is the ONLY provider I can get that does anything remotely resembling broadband) caps my connection when approaching a limit. This limit is apparently determined by 'the average bandwidth used with comparable accounts'. Due to the very nature of the system - of which no actual parameters used in the calculation of what is determined to be 'average' are publicly published or known - the 'limit' shrinks a bit every consecutive cap, and the ISP's definition of 'free downloading' (note they do not use unlimited downloading) currently stands at around 200 GB.

    So youtube-google, excuse the hell out of me if I'm not going to subscribe to any HD streaming service.

    1. Wayland Sothcott 1

      Re: Unfortunately...

      Presumably you have checked to see if there are any Wireless Broadband providers (WISP) in your area?

      These small companies can provide very fast low latency service (better than ADSL in most cases) and plenty of bandwidth to watch video. If You don't have such a company then start one. If you do and that's what you are complaining about then help them upgrade, faster gear is available now.

  11. Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik

    So thats...

    All the self important people who think their "content" is worth something will be inaccessible by most of the greater unwashed. Sounds like a good deal to me.

  12. pewpie
    FAIL

    Instant Fail

    Brings new meaning to the term commercial suicide.

    They really must think people are as gullible as Joe..

  13. Steve Foster
    FAIL

    I don't have high hopes for anything organised by YouTube

    as they're telling me they've "updated my preferences to English (GB)" about every 3 days or so at the moment.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tax

    More revenue for Google not to pay tax on...

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