Some of Youtube's most popular content creators have been approached by the video sharing site and asked to put forward proposals for the sort of programming they could make available on a pay-per-subscription based channel system, that could see users pay between £0.60 and £3.00 a month to watch their videos.

The idea behind this scheme is to further rival TV as a place to watch programmes, as well as draw the interest of more advertisers – though how restricting your content to less people will increase ad. revenue remains a mystery to this writer.

No word on who has been approached beyond vague rumours of them being big content producers, or channel owners that have shown the ability to keep a big audience for a long period of time. However chances are Youtube has been courting them for some time. It was over a year ago now that we heard the first rumours of paid content on the site, with CEO at Youtube, Salar Kamangar, suggesting during a stage appearance that he had been in talks with cable TV companies for a while.

With regards to recent developments, a Google spokesman said: “We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models. The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform. There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we're looking at that.”

If these rumours put forward by Ad Age turn out to be true, we could be looking at this new subscription model beginning as soon as in the next few months.

KitGuru Says: Can't imagine I'd sign up to this. As good as some channels are, I don't see myself ever paying to watch them. What about you guys?

Become a Patron!