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Google To Offer Ad-Free YouTube - At a Price

Posted by samzenpus on from the pay-up dept.

First time accepted submitter totalcaos writes YouTube announced today its plans for an ad-free, subscription-based service by way of an email sent out to YouTube Partners. The email details the forthcoming option, which will offer consumers the choice to pay for an "ads-free" version of YouTube for a monthly fee. The additional monetization option requires partners to agree to updated terms on YouTube's Creator Studio Dashboard, which notes that the changes will go into effect on June 15, 2015. We talked about the possibility of an ad-free model back in October.

2 of 358 comments (clear)

  1. Ultra low usage tier by Quick+Reply · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I like the concept of paying for content to support my usage instead of going through annoying ads, but I don't use Youtube all that often, usually only because someone else has given me a link to something in particular. Those 30 second ads which sometimes lets you skip after 5 seconds and sometimes don't let you skip at all are really annoying. I hope that they give a low-tier option. For example $1 per year which is good for ad-free (or no forced ads) up to 500 videos.

    The most important thing is that I hope that the subscription options are compelling enough that someone would WANT to use it over the use of an Adblocker without any Adblocking counter-measures put in place.

    If it is successful (for consumers) it would be great if an ad-free pass could be extended across any other websites too that participate, not just Youtube.

    I use Adblock because the quality of advertising is too invasive, not because I don't to deprive websites of revenue.

  2. Useful in education by pjpII · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I teach language classes, and this would be useful since I often use Youtube to show songs, listening exercises, etc. Sometimes I'm forced to use the in-class room computer, and nothing throws off a listening exercise like warming everyone up, getting their mental schemata activated, and then some ridiculous ad immediately preceding a listening. I hope that perhaps my university could get some sort of educational rate, since this is really for my work rather than my personal use.

    I'd also love to make the scourge of autoplay go away somehow - suddenly it's everywhere that shows videos.