back to article Google: Give us cash or we'll poke YouTube ads into your eyeballs

Google is planning to launch a subscription service for YouTube, offering viewers the opportunity to avoid advertisements for a monthly fee. In an email sent to vid makers YouTube Partners by the YouTube team the Chocolate Factory's video service is set to roll out a subscription service which will offer "fans an ads-free …

  1. Amorous Cowherder
    Thumb Up

    I wasn't aware you could get pre-video ad blockers too, you learn something useful every day!

    Cheers!

    1. Swarthy

      Indeed!

      I don't think that that's something AdBlock can do, do any of the esteemed Commentariat have suggestions for a pre-video ad blocker?

      Failing that, I may spring for a subscription to avoid the ads.

      1. theModge

        Re: Indeed!

        It is something adblock can do you will be pleased to learn.

        If youtube do move to block adblock then I'll cheerfully stop using them - I don't watch much on there in any case. El reg on the other hand I always feel slightly guilty about adblocking, but there's no subscription here.

        1. Lord Raa

          Re: Indeed!

          You can always white-list a site you want to support.

          1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

            Re: Indeed!

            Or just set your Google account not to provide personalised Ads, hasn't shown me any ads in years.

    2. DropBear

      I wasn't aware you could get pre-video ads. Although to be fair this may also be due to there being a lot less ads targeted towards (= paid for by entities interested in) my geographic location. Well, either that or ABP.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Holmes

        uBlock works just as well at blocking Youtube ads (and all others), and is less resource hungry than the Adblock variants. Also it's free-as-in-freedom software (GPL3). Might want to consider it for your ad-blocking toolkit.

  2. bpfh
    Devil

    How much and what...

    A tenner a month for any and all videos, I'm game. Probably not if it's much more... But if it's only 150 odd "premium" channels, then honestly, I really CBA...

  3. Crisp
    Coat

    I can't remember the last time I saw some really good brasts

    I don't think I can remember the first time either...

  4. Yugguy

    Has The Register turned into the Daily Sport?

    Did you trawl every one of the video partners to find that any might be a bit rude?

    A subscription service so I can watch the music videos I like without getting some stunningly annoying, completely irrelevant adverts aimed at some spotty, scrawny little oik half my age?

    SIGN ME UP.

    1. Pen-y-gors

      relevant ads...

      Relevance is very important. I get somewhat miffed with the ads on Spotify. I don't object to ads per se, after all they do have to get the money to pay a pittance to the artists from somewhere, but why can't they find some relevant ads? If I'm listening to a load of odd classical and celticy folk music, why would they ever think I might be interested in some total crap aimed at the tone-deaf yoof market? Surely if they offered appropriate ads I might be more inclined to click on them, and they could then charge more for the ad spot.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: relevant ads...

        The ads are not targeted presumably to annoy you enough so that you will upgrade to premium. Their own ads urging you to upgrade are even more bloody annoying.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: relevant ads...

        The trouble is, you will then be on the receiving end of Amazon's crap advertising, whereby you will be pursued by ads for the latest thing you just bought/looked at before buying elsewhere and are no longer interested in buying. The only difference between Amazon ads and a vacuum cleaner is that you have to plug in a vacuum cleaner for it to suck.

    2. Danny Roberts 1

      Re: Has The Register turned into the Daily Sport?

      If you subscribe to Google Play Music (£7.99/mo) then you don't get ads on the music videos anyway.

      As has been pointed out by NerdCubed, the subscription model means creators are much less likely to link to other similar Youtube videos as this will be reducing their own payments.

  5. Rafael 1

    No more ads, huh?

    What about "messages from Google and partners you may be interested in?"

    And "sponsored links"?

    And videos that are e.g. ads for products? How long until people get a way to link them as "suggestions" to the ones you want to watch?

  6. returnmyjedi

    Mmm...brasts.

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. dogged

      I'd pay that, too but only if they also implemented SSL.

      Because 2015 people, ffs.

      1. Sandtitz Silver badge

        SSL?

        TLS surely!

  8. Semaj
    Thumb Down

    Who Gets It?

    I would POSSIBLY consider this on the condition that the channels that I watch get a much larger cut of the money than Google do. However, given that only pewdiepie makes anything worthwhile even from ads these days, I can't imagine a sub would be different for anyone else than being (blocked) ad supported. Other than Google themselves of course.

    Also, has anyone else noticed that it's really hard to find new channels to watch these days since the multiple awful layout changes?

  9. JimmyPage Silver badge

    er ....

    most of the YouTube content I watch is old clips of UK TV shows. Which I strongly suspect Google doesn't own the rights to...

    1. John Lilburne

      Re: er ....

      I don't think Google owns the rights to much on YT. They exist courtesy of an army of Artful Dodgers.

  10. War President
    Pirate

    YouTube profit increase?

    This will help YouTube streamline the process of bleeding money from the content creators who sit at the bottom of a long chain of hands pulling money out of their revenue stream.

  11. splodge

    I'd been wondering how Google were going to next make ewet00b shitter.

    Well done, chaps!! :)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    profitability still seems a way off for YouTube as a whole.

    Isn't that because profitability = taxibility.

    1. Thecowking

      Re: profitability still seems a way off for YouTube as a whole.

      I think that's more Uber's issue than Google's.

      At least until the self-driving cars get out in force.

  13. NotWorkAdmin

    Also...

    Subscribers can watch offline. I don't pay for a big data allowance, so having playlists of pretty much anything I fancy to play in the car suits me. I'm on the music beta.

    If it's £10 or less for this new doohickey, I'll be signing up. Hate ADs, but too guilt ridden to use Adblock - the channels I watch put in lots of effort to create top quality stuff. Supposedly the Green brothers (for instance) have spent $4m on production and achieved only $2m in AD revenue.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    mandatory ads for porn?

    I think that's a very fair trade at $10/month.

  15. localzuk Silver badge

    Seems good to me

    A nice step in the right direction.

    Next up, I want an easy to use monthly subscription option for channels I want to support - like Twitch TV's subscribers. Entirely voluntary, doesn't affect the content in any way, but allows you to easily show support to a channel. The Fan Funding/Tip Jar concept is a nice one, but they need an option for recurring payments, and also need to roll it out further afield than USA/Mexico/Japan/Australia.

  16. Durant Imboden

    Brasts?

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