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YOUTUBE IS WORKING on a paid-subscription service for the site, which would allow users to watch videos without seeing any ads.
The CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, said at the Code Mobile conference that it was thinking about “how to give users options” and that it was noticing a model where consumers would either choose ads, or pay a fee.
“YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users,” said Wojcicki. ”But there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads.”
If YouTube goes down this route, it will follow the same format as Spotify where users can either listen to a version with ads, or pay for the premium version and remove them entirely. It could mean that the rate of ads on the free service would increase, to encourage people to pay for the subscription service.
Although YouTube already has a subscription service of sorts. Last year, it allowed certain channels like Sesame Street and the UFC to sell subscriptions to their videos, usually allowing users to view full episodes.
Wojcicki also revealed that half of all YouTube views now come from mobile devices and that time spent watching videos is growing at a rate of 50% year-on-year, although she mentioned that this doesn’t come close to matching the average amount of time people spend watching TV every day.
When asked about whether it was working on other subscription services, mainly its rumoured YouTube music service, Wojcicki said she was “optimistic about seeing it soon” but didn’t specify whether it would arrive this year.
First published 28 October, 8.10am
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Or just use adblocker and never get any ads for free (y)
Had to add a very large Nissan ad to its filter list. Would never use the net without adblocker.
So Google gets money from those who place the ads and also gets money from those that don’t want to see those ads. Brilliant.
Ad Block Plus free ad on. I’m using it for years. i don’t know what annoying ads are.
It doesn’t stop ads at the start of videos does it??
Just use Adblocker add on if using a desktop or laptop. The ads are gone and it’s free
I think they are referring to the video ads shown before the viewing the video you want to see. AdBlocker will not and cannot stop this.
Nope David, you’re wrong there, Adblock will stop video ads as well.
RTE player won’t work if adblock is enabled. If RTE can manage it I’m sure YouTube will too.
RTE player doesn’t work a lot of the time anyway.
Install Ad blocker on chrome, then use fire fox for RTE player.
@See My Vest RTE player works just fine with Ad-blocker enabled. Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus is a handy way to block elements on the fly without having to manually edit filters.
I use RTE blocker, Never see any RTE stuff it’s works great.
Rte ads can be disabled, but u have to tweak the adblocker you use all the time. It’s cat and mouse stuff and constantly changing, I would rather spend 5 minutes tweaking my blocking system than give rte 1 minutes of my time to enrich their bloated pockets. Our national propaganda station can only be used for objective reference due to the Pinocchio style element fiddling of its content, the weather can be trusted to some extent along with a few other bits n’ bobs. But remember when rte give you a figure or an important announcement they are probably lying. So unless it’s verifiable through multiple other sources it’s probably not accurate. Who would pay for that? The blue bloods think they run things? Who runs Bartertown?: http://youtu.be/_Xetonjc3M8
Does Ad Blocker work on mobiles? Article mentioned a huge rise in mobile viewers. I know I mostly watch YouTube on my phone these days.
I bet you do watch RTE
RTE players uses javascript to block the adblock plugin. Fortunately you can use Ablockers filter feature to block the javascript which blocks adblocker.
Adblock Plus for FireFox, haven’t had an ad in years.
nah I wouldn’t pay just wait 5 seconds and skip add ..
Luke – that was the first thought that came into my head. But my guess is that if they do bring in the subscription service, then the will get rid of the option to skip ads and force people to watch the whole thing in lieu of paying.
sounds like something they’d do angelic. I have had a Goggle + account for months now and I still have no idea what it is/does
Haha true. Google + tries to do everything but ends up just a confused mess that no one seems to understand.
The only time i see ads on YouTube is when i use my smartphone. Ad-block plus is a must. In March last year Google blocked Adblock app from Google store for “interference with another service or product in an unauthorized manner.” basically because Google wasn’t happy with them blocking ads. 4 months later Google (and others) reportedly paid to get on the white list of ad-block. goes to show how powerful Adblock Plus really is.
Root your smartphone and use Adaway :)
True, being thinking of using TowelRoot to do it – just not confident using the app just yet.
If you use ad-blocker, the people who make the videos you watch don’t get paid. Maybe some people don’t think that’s a problem and maybe some do, that’s a different day’s discussion. There are some people who have a career in making content for YouTube and if you’re not giving anything back to them, they may not be able to continue doing so.
Twitch.tv sorted this out a long time ago by having 2 levels of payment option – you can subscribe to an individual channel (usually around $5 a month) and never see ads on their channel (and get other supplementary content at the channel’s discretion) or you can pay for “Twitch Turbo” which disables ads across the site and shares revenue with the channels you watch for $8 a month (I think). I’d definitely consider paying for a similar offering for YouTube.
Adblocker also works for Twitch.tv, I personally have never seen an ad on it
They could always adopt the RTE model. Take a subscription AND riddle the programming with add’s.
ha ha ha ha
Hahaha, no. Ad block all the way. Available on desktop and mobile.
Chanel 4 disabled access to their playback content for browsers with blocking software so now I just use other sites to view their content. 15+ years after napster and companies still don’t understand online consumer behavior.
I’m all for adblocker when browsing generally. Mostly for safety. But for services and sites I use daily that rely on advertising income, I switch it off.
The quality of YouTube videos has gone up dramatically since ad revenue was dished out to content providers.
The truth is these things cost money, and if the money dries up completely, so will the good content. And there’s only so many times you will enjoy watching ‘Charlie bit my finger’ type home videos. So I’ll gladly pay a subscription to keep the quality channels I subscribe to, making regular quality videos.
For mobile devices, YouTube ads are becoming a serious pain in the hole.
Better to pay people for watching the ads. For example ad companies sponsoring good films/docs on YouTube. They could bring in youtube currency to top up your a/c and buy vids/ music etc. shouldn’t just be content creators that get to generate revenue.
I would not
have your say