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Yui Mok

Would you pay to avoid Youtube ads? You may get the choice soon

YouTube is working on an ad-free subscription service, which would allow users to avoid ads for a set fee.

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

Read: This Irish YouTuber went from 2,500 to 1.5 million subs in the space of a year >

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34 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aaron Harper
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:04 PM

    Or just use adblocker and never get any ads for free (y)

    360
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    Mute Aaron O Connor
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    Oct 28th 2014, 4:33 PM

    Had to add a very large Nissan ad to its filter list. Would never use the net without adblocker.

    50
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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Oct 28th 2014, 5:27 PM

    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.

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    Mute Dawid Niedzwiadek
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    Oct 28th 2014, 7:45 PM

    Ad Block Plus free ad on. I’m using it for years. i don’t know what annoying ads are.

    34
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    Mute Fergal Kelly
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    Oct 29th 2014, 12:43 PM

    It doesn’t stop ads at the start of videos does it??

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    Mute PaddyMan515
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:05 PM

    Just use Adblocker add on if using a desktop or laptop. The ads are gone and it’s free

    117
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    Mute David Ronan
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:23 PM

    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.

    26
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    Mute David Fortune
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:30 PM

    Nope David, you’re wrong there, Adblock will stop video ads as well.

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    Mute See My Vest
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    Oct 28th 2014, 2:22 PM

    RTE player won’t work if adblock is enabled. If RTE can manage it I’m sure YouTube will too.

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    Mute alpha_chaarlie
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    Oct 28th 2014, 5:32 PM

    RTE player doesn’t work a lot of the time anyway.

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    Mute Frank Carty
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:23 AM

    Install Ad blocker on chrome, then use fire fox for RTE player.

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    Mute Pinel G
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:38 AM

    @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.

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    Mute Theirish Brain
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:43 AM

    I use RTE blocker, Never see any RTE stuff it’s works great.

    30
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    Mute Deep Beneath You
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:55 AM

    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

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    Mute Fred O'Connor
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    Oct 29th 2014, 9:01 AM

    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.

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    Mute Maurice Dancer
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    Oct 29th 2014, 9:09 AM

    I bet you do watch RTE

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    Mute Aaron Harper
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    Oct 29th 2014, 12:20 PM

    RTE players uses javascript to block the adblock plugin. Fortunately you can use Ablockers filter feature to block the javascript which blocks adblocker.

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    Mute Ariana
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:05 PM

    Adblock Plus for FireFox, haven’t had an ad in years.

    87
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    Mute Luke
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:19 PM

    nah I wouldn’t pay just wait 5 seconds and skip add ..

    52
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    Mute Angelic Lestat
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:32 PM

    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.

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    Mute Luke
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    Oct 28th 2014, 1:53 PM

    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

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    Mute Ancient History
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    Oct 28th 2014, 7:25 PM

    Haha true. Google + tries to do everything but ends up just a confused mess that no one seems to understand.

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    Mute Pinel G
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:16 PM

    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.

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    Mute ƒR()§†H@X
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    Oct 28th 2014, 1:27 PM

    Root your smartphone and use Adaway :)

    12
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    Mute Pinel G
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    Oct 28th 2014, 1:42 PM

    True, being thinking of using TowelRoot to do it – just not confident using the app just yet.

    5
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    Mute Dav Waldron
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:10 PM

    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.

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    Mute PaddyMan515
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:15 PM

    Adblocker also works for Twitch.tv, I personally have never seen an ad on it

    37
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    Mute David Cagney
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    Oct 28th 2014, 1:31 PM

    They could always adopt the RTE model. Take a subscription AND riddle the programming with add’s.

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    Mute Deep Beneath You
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    Oct 30th 2014, 1:46 AM

    ha ha ha ha

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    Mute Jimbo Murphy
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:46 PM

    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.

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    Mute Shane Farrell
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    Oct 28th 2014, 3:07 PM

    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.

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    Mute Senan Byrne
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:24 AM

    For mobile devices, YouTube ads are becoming a serious pain in the hole.

    6
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    Mute Marko Burns
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    Oct 28th 2014, 12:39 PM

    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.

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    Mute Jim
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:39 AM

    I would not

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