YouTube Considering an Ad-Free, Subscription-Based Version

Walking The Walk writes YouTube is looking at creating a paid-subscription model that would allow users to skip the ads on their videos. (A more condensed summary from CBC.) No firm date has been announced, and it sounds like tentative steps right now, but YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki did mention that ad-enabled music videos would still be offered.

Comments

Ad free...until they reach critical mass

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> I'd happily pay a higher monthly fee not to have the ads

You must be new to the planet. Remember when the promise of cable TV was "you pay for it, so it's ad-free!" Once YouTube has a critical population writing monthly checks for content, they'll surely add the ads back in.

Re:Ads always load fine

[sound vision]

I've been very disappointed in how the YouTube video player has been getting worse on a technical level. In fact, it's been many years since it was in a state that I'd consider "good". Between videos failing halfway through, or just failing to load period, requiring a refresh... not to mention the extreme bandwidth waste while seeking. It used to be, once a video had loaded, you could seek to any point in that video and it would simply start playing the loaded video from that point. Now, it begins re-downloading the entire video, beginning at your seek point.