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YouTube To Offer Subscription Service This Week
jfruh writes "According to an email from a Google spokesman, YouTube will be offering a $1.99/month subscription service as early as this week. This service will 'bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content,' though there was no indication of what content will be offered through the service exactly. YouTube has offered rentals for specific videos before but this is the first time the service would go head-to-head with subscription services like Netflix."
The Slashdot vote was pretty clear!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I'd definitely pay $2/month to remove the damn ads. Same goes for Hulu - why don't they have this option?
While the poll may be a valid indicator of what the tech crowd desires, it's not a good indicator for the general public.
Plus, the rules are different now.
It seems clear that the basic YouTube service will be free. The pay service will be for premium content. There seems to be less resistance to that.
Well, if you insist on being cynical isn't it just as likely that youtube will simultaneously roll out vastly improved software to scan for and remove copyrighted movies. But only if you submit your copyrighted movie for their analysis (and rental) first.
I mean, that's if you insist on being as cynical as possible.
This service will 'bring even more great content to YouTube
That made me laugh. "Great content on Youtube" is today's latest oxymoron.
Especially since they seem to have no tailoring to my interest
You're right that YouTube video ads tend to be only vaguely targeted, even though I haven't disabled Google's various tracking mechanisms. Google has done a lot better job targeting its text ads. I gather from an ad that has been shown to me a few times about the benefits of advertising your business with video that perhaps Google is hurting for video advertisers.
I think that Google first proved that they are capable of delivering pretty 1080p video without stuttering, while leaving you the option for 720p if your internet or playback device can't handle 1080p. We'll see what content they will be offering, but I'm pretty sure about one thing: People are comfortable with Youtube as a video delivery system. You can bet that there will be living room devices that will seamlessly treat your subscribed Youtube channels as regular TV channels. Hopefully, future Youtube Android apps will allow you to pre-buffer the premium content so that you can watch it even when you don't have a good connection, for example, on a bus. If some of their subscriptions were things like Discovery Channel, ESPN and Comedy Central, how many people would drop their cable TV altogether? If these channels were on premium Youtube, the living room experience of watching them would be undiminished compared to cable TV, and all kinds of new options for VOD and watching on portable devices would open up. If Google does this right, the only people that will continue subscribing to cable TV will be luddites who can't be bothered to make Youtube work in their living room.
I'm on a 50 mb/sec internet connection and can't stream youtube movies above 360p without the movie stopping every couple of minutes due to buffer underrun. I've no issues with amazon prime, hulu or netflix movies. I don't know why this only happens with youtube. I don't see why I'd be paying $1.99/month.
Lately, most youtube video do not properly play on my high speed FIOS connection. Most wont even start, or if they do if fail to buffer along the way, even at 240p. And the worst is when the video does play, many now have LONG ads within them. I'm talking like 2 and a half minutes. Ok MAYBE I'll sit through a half minute, but longer than that is not gonna work. Why would I pay for this?
Oh that's a good idea. Your favourite shows could load themselves automatically when they are released each week, so you come home from work and whatever is ready is all set to go without any interaction from yourself. Pick whatever you want to watch or leave it for later, very convenient.
And the worst is when the video does play, many now have LONG ads within them. I'm talking like 2 and a half minutes.
And I went to the movie theater in 1989 and saw a 90-minute ad for the NES.
But seriously, any video ad on YouTube that is longer than 30 seconds should have "click to skip" after the first 5 seconds.
You're just one step closer to the dystopian future of the all-despising baby skull: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2490
A common trick used by content providers is to have the same DNS entry resolve to different IP addresses in different parts of the internet so that you'll get content from a sever close to you.
This doesn't seem to be working out for you.
I suggest trying a different DNS provider and see what happens. Try using google's own DNS if you're not (set your DNS to 8.8.8.8) or, if you are, try using the ISPs.
You'll probably need to flush your DNS in the operating system and probably restart your browser to clear its own DNS caches before this has any effect (on a mac you can flush your dns cache with the sudo dscacheutil -flushcache command from the terminal)
My ISP (Virgin Media) actually copes better with 1080p because they cache it inside their network. 720p often stutters because it is uncached. Unfortunately some devices don't let you select 1080p over 720p, such as my phone. It makes sense because the phone's screen is "only" 720p, but they didn't count on Virgin being crap.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Epic Rap Battles of History.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Paying even a trivial fee like $1.99/month will lead users to claim higher levels of satisfaction with the service which is good for Google. It's been shown empirically over and over that we come to value those things which we pay for more than those which are free.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Except that they haven't proven that with their NorthWest servers at all. And yes, it is their servers that are having issues.
Who exactly is making a living off of YouTube ads? I have an account and see the rates. That $3 from ads over a few months will go real far....
They will pester you about using your "real name", but a Google Plus account or using your name is NOT required to comment.
Some of us have been doing that for years with torrents and RSS.
Except that they haven't proven that with their NorthWest servers at all. And yes, it is their servers that are having issues.
Cite?
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
youtube.com from a northwest state
This seemed fishy considering the market, so I did some poking around and, surprise!: not only does the summary totally mangle the facts of the rumor - Youtube is supposedly going to start offering premium CHANNELS for 1.99/month EACH, not a Hulu or Netflix-type broad subscription - but it's only a rumor that google has neither confirmed nor denied.
http://consumerist.com/2013/05/06/report-youtube-introducing-paid-subscription-channels-soon/
Good job.
Anybody else remember google video? Anybody else remember when they shutdown and fucked over everybody that had paid for their DRM videos?
Ok, this is a subscription. But it's not the first time they tried making money from videos.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
At this (rental) rate, in twenty years it will be explicitly illegal to own any type of media.
It's kind of interesting because the industry has already come up with a solution for this. They allow streaming to mobile devices, but first got to log in with your cable/sat provider's info to verify you subscribe to their service. I know a couple years ago my Dad had a package with everything including all the HBO's. I signed in my iPad under his account and was able to watch the first season of Games of Thrones on my iPad through HBO GO.
Truth is there is starting become a blur between content providers and creators, especially with Comcast now controlling NBCUniversal.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
I prefer Archive.org because their specific mandate is to serve the public, 'universal access to all knowledge'. By contrast, Youtube is a business; their goal is to generate revenue. That is why I get disappointed when public service initiatives or individuals use Youtube. Archive.org is quite good, and they also offer GNU/Libre friendly alternatives for sound/video files such as ogg and flac. Archive.org has no annoying ads and there is some really useful information on there--hopefully in the future there will be more of a migration to Archive.org. Despite youtube being html5, my Libre-based distro cannot play all the videos and get a notification to install Adobe Flash. Not so with Archive.org.
"SO we bide our time, waiting for a purer kick to bloom and the future is still bleak, uncertain and beautiful" -GSYBE
youtube.com from a northwest state
That's not very informative :-)
There are many, many things that could be causing problems for you. Your ISP's configuration, including possibly-overloaded caching servers, DNS misconfiguration directing your requests to the wrong places, overloaded ISPGoogle peering links, overloaded ISP backbone links... and many more.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I hope all those funny advertisements are not part of this subscription
...why youtube has been choking lately
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Honestly, I don't think I am able to see more youtube content. Why pay for more content if I don't have the time to see all of what is offered for free?
It's now telling me something about making a channel. Iunno, this crap i don't understand. But point still stands, it makes me do some crap to comment, which i couldn't be bothered to do. And if they charged to watch stuff, it'd be even quicker for me to be less bothered.
Have you tried calling them or emailing them?
YouTube's parent company Google is notoriously hard to contact through e-mail or phone. They want things to go through a public forum.