The way people watch videos – including TV shows – was forever changed by YouTube when it made its appearance back in 2005. But ten years later, YouTube itself is under threat from other video-on-demand sources.
According to a rather in-depth Variety report, it could even be considering a paid-for subscription service to ad-free access of its best videos from top creators, including its upcoming YouTube Original Channel that will supposedly offer videos commissioned and paid for by YouTube itself, which should launch sometime this year.
Variety delves into the goings-on behind the ever-changing world of video production, consumption and monetisation; deep into the piece is the sentence “…YouTube is exploring the prospect of launching its own subscription VOD service, modeled on YouTube Music Key”.
Since Music Key has an introductory price of $7.99, expect YouTube’s subscription service to go for something similar if it actually happens. That’s R99.17 at today’s exchange rate a month for the best of YouTube – including YouTube Originals – and no ads at all.
By introducing a subscription service, The Verge speculates that YouTube could be making efforts to prevent its top stars from moving over to other VOD services like Hulu and Vimeo by enticing them them into staying with a potentially bigger slice of the revenue pie.
Right now this is just a rumour, though, lent a smidgen of credence by The Verge’s assertion that it comes from “an unnamed executive at a company that partners with YouTube to produce video content”.
Would you pay for YouTube’s Original content, or to follow your favourite YouTube celebrities to their new digital homes? Or are you happy to keep watching the free videos offered by other services and you don’t care about who produces it?
[Image – CC-BY-3.0/HernandoJoseAJ]
