The online king unveiled a paid service that takes away commercials for $10 a month. The platform recently launched the YouTube NewsWire used to verify eyewitness videos and now it wants to strip out ads for a price. However, the free ad-based option remains.
Video creators will have to sign a revenue deal with YouTube Red which is $9.99 ad-free subscription. Failure to do so, your videos will be hidden from the public view on both the ad-supported and ad-free tiers. This affects videos done by popular comedians, musicians, game commentators, and DIY instructors, though not the average person that uploads clips.
“The YouTube you know and love continues to thrive and will continue to thrive,” Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl said Wednesday at a presentation for members of the press. “We have been working on bringing a whole new experience to fans. A new way to experience YouTube without ads.”
“It’s great to see YouTube offer an alternative to an ad-only model,” an analyst said. “Consumers want choice and options.
But pay walls haven’t always done well and uptake depends on how users balance the attractiveness of the exclusive content and the pain of sitting through lots of ads.”
The new tier asks the more than 1 billion people who visit YouTube each month to alter their assumptions about the worth of online video. By putting a dollar value on a site that was free with advertising for a decade, parent Google is showing it believes consumers will pay for its content and new perks. It also puts YouTube in competition with popular online subscription services like Netflix and Hulu. That means consumers more and more will need to consider how many entertainment sites deserve $10 a month out of their wallets. Reports cnet.
YouTube executives said they plan to focus on talent that rose to prominence on its site, rather than pursue more traditional stars to make films and series for YouTube Red. That contrasts with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which have won critical acclaim and greater popular awareness with edgy originals cast with traditional stars.
Analysts believe YouTube will lose its audience to other platforms. Ian Maude from Enders Analysis said,”you are not going to see 50% buying this, it’s going to be relatively small numbers.”
“But,” he added. “they might be able to hoover up some more money and from Google’s perspective it gets them into the high-quality, high-production value game.”
He said that YouTube, like other video-streaming sites, was seeking to become a platform that showed original content it bankrolled not just programmes made by other organizations.
“Google has deep pockets and a lot of money and it’s a space it needs to be in so it makes sense to me that they would want to be there,” said Mr Maude
