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Would you pay for YouTube? Google think so

It's no secret that YouTube is the go to source for instantly watching online videos these days, with YouTube access being a consideration when people are buying anything from tablets and phones, to consoles and TVs, let alone PCs. But now that YouTube is in such a dominant position, as the internet video platform, it seems that they are considering launching a subscription model for those who do not want to see adverts.

Obviously nobody wants to see adverts if they can avoid them, so maybe this subscription will be reasonably priced and will help drive advertisers away from advertising on YouTube. However it is far more likely that those who do not subscribe will be piled with even more adverts than they are at the moment, in an effort to encourage them to upgrade to the subscription service.
Youtube advert
Google have been “fine-tuning the experience” over the last few months according to Robert Kyncl, head of content and business operations for YouTube. They had previously experimented with some paid services on a per channel basis for subscribers and also for some specific media such as movies. With the new subscription service, we are not yet sure if this will apply to all YouTube videos or just a selected bunch of content or channels, it is not yet known when Youtube will announce the service either, so we'll just have to wait for now.

For now though there is always AdBlock or one of the many alternatives out there, that allow you to skip past or totally avoid most of the adverts on the site. Obviously this, in the end also harms the content creators, and many creators have been turning to Kickstarter and Patreon to fund some of their more ambitious projects. This way those that want to support the continued production of high quality, well produced videos can do so, while those that want to watch for free can generally also do so after a short exclusivity period for those that have paid.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While I can appreciate that Google wants to start making some money from YouTube, for content creators who want to make money there are plenty of other platforms for them to use such as Vimeo which is almost as well supported on a wide range of devices. I guess we will have to wait and see what Google announce, do you have any expectations?

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37 comments

  1. Do it and almost no one will use youtube again, it’s success comes from being free, once it gets to be a paid service peope will not use it nearly as much.

  2. Oh yes. I will totally consider paying to not see advertisements *cough cough*

  3. uhm… google does make money from youtube tho… they get a percentage of ad revenue from ALL the creators… bruh whatchya talkin about

  4. they want more money bruh

  5. People can live without Youtube! I’ve lived without it when the internet connection sucks. If Youtube is trying to do something to hamper the viewing experience, there are a lot of others like Dailymotion and Vimeo that will want the traffic.

  6. The pay to watch youtube is only on the table because of the millions of users that believe in free meals by using Adblock.

    Reap what you sow.

    When it come to membership in various community driven websites throughout the internet, what often comes with being a paying member? Ad-free browsing through the website. This is commonly offered as an incentive for paying a subscription. Since you are supporting the server costs.

    Mad at google about this? be mad at Adblock users.

  7. Yeah I’m sure youtube and google suffer greatly from the 5% or so of people who use ad-blocking software, much like video game devs suffer from the 5% of pirates. Think of all the profits they’re not making because people don’t like getting shit shoved in their face and killing their bandwidth :'(

  8. Well, they will lose a lot of viewers, i would not pay to use youtube, its attraction is that is free, and you can watch and upload all sorts. I would not pay to view a youtube video, there is enough money in it from the ad revenue that google get from it, they do not need to make a “premium” service too.

  9. Dick move blocking adverts on kitguru. Do you think this site is ran on charity and magic?

  10. I don’t mind ads that does not intervene my viewing pleasures, charging for something that most likely an advertisement for something is like a scam, like, I used to go for product reviews,

  11. I add trusted websites like Kitguru and Eteknix to my whitelist.
    I’d rather support them.
    However, adverts on youtube shall forever be blocked.

  12. IF I were to buy anything from an ad I saw on a web page, it would be an impulse buy and only that. Ads rarely remind you to buy something you actually NEED so they are better left out of the picture when possible. 😉

  13. Apart from the fact that on a site like this, the adverts won’t work on a pay-per-click basis…

  14. I think they actually take about 45% revenue and Google’s Quarterly earning from just ads on YouTube are around 1.9 Billion dollars….

    Jupp they just want more of the Mean Green to oil there machine.

  15. That is why I use adblocker plus, I don’t have to worry about craptastic ads or popups.

  16. YouTube already has ads though, the payment would just be optional to remove the ads. It would not effect any current users.

  17. Yeah but if they surpass the ADBlock software, there wont’t be many people wiling to pay to remove ads…Because people don’t want ads, or either paying to remove them if they wanted ads they would continue to wacth TV instead of youtube..Almost all peole i know don’t like ads, and won’t be happy if the only way to remove it is by payinga monthly subscription.

  18. Youtube is becoming greedy…

  19. That’s why those sites don’t have the popularity of Youtube, and that’s why Youtube popularity will start to fall if they adopt this measure

  20. mazty you know adblock has filters by site, don’t you?

  21. Bitch please Youtube had profits before those intrusive ads!

  22. Yes, and the guys screenshot clearly shows he hasn’t added kitguru. Dick move by him.

  23. The fallacies in this one. You clearly want youtube to remain subscription-less, and yet you don’t want the very ads that support youtube’s overhead. Which is it? can’t have both.

  24. Intrusive? hardly. Theres a skip button that appears after X amount of seconds. This poster can’t wait mere seconds that support youtube’s overhead, which keeps youtube subscription-less.

  25. judging by your post above you are in the same illogical boat as Fartsmith. “I don’t want ads, i don’t want to pay a subscription fee.” Without one or the other who pays for youtube’s overhead?

  26. this is exactly why subscriptions are on the table because of these adblock users /facepalm

  27. Intrusive means that you go to see something and without warning something pops up, if you don’t know what intrusive means that’s not my fault…

  28. I’m fine with non intrusive ads like a those that appear on the upper left side of your screen, or even a click based system, both are non-intrusive and generate fees for the site owners and with youtube acess rates they would make lot’s of money with a click based system for example, what i’m not fine is to have a AD to pop up everytime i try to watch a video, yes i know you can skip them but still you have to wait 5 seconds, thats fine for sometime then it’s just annoying… The kindof money they receive from non intrusive ads is tremendous, and now they are just trying to get more money from people by being rude,”i have ads that appear everytime you watch my videos”, i say to you what i said to another guy Youtube already had profitsbefore those types of ads…

  29. You have your opinion i have mine…still youtube already had profit’sbefore making this ad thingy

  30. Where did I say I want Youtube to remain subscription-less? Ads are the cancer of modern society, be it on the internet, in video games, TV, movies and even sports. I’d rather throw a few cents a month myself rather than feed this pig pen of an industry. What I did say, and that you’re purposefully ignoring for the sake of your argument, is that Google is a billion dollar company that makes a huge profit and that the tiny minority of people who block ads barely affect their revenue.

  31. pop ups? there are no pop ups on youtube. Sorry to break the bad news to you buddy, your pc is infected with intrusive spyware.

  32. When you click a video link the ad ad doesn’t start automatically?Let me disable adblock and run a few antivirus programs…

    OH WAIT it does pop up!, because i don’t have control over it on the moment it appears to say if i want to see it, so yes it pop’s up, and only 5 seconds later i can decide what happens.

    And you know that a pop up is a thing that appears without you having ordered it, don’t you?

    Quit trying to justify a thing that clearly has on it the label of getting even wealthier, it isn’t like they are not profitable

  33. Just for the record what is your definition of a pop-up so i can understand your logic in saying that my pc is infected.

    Ps: You know that are sites where ads pop-up, and still it doesn’t mean you are infected, don’t you??And you know you get infected if you click on those ads or visit shady sites, you know that right?

  34. And by the way “intrusive spyware”?!…Is there any spyware on earth that isnn’t intrusive…

    Im sorry for you kid with that comment you made clear you know nothing about whatis intrusive or not 🙂

  35. What? If the ads bother you so much don’t use youtube. Whats an intrusive ad and whats not an intrusive ad is opinion based on personal tolerance before your temper boils over. Clearly Julio has no tolerance for the non-intrusive youtube ads.

    Go to a news website like CNN or Bloomberg they have ads when watching videos on their webite. They last up to a minute and there’s no skip option. Still not intrusive to me. These companies need to pay for overhead.

  36. Júlio Sencadas

    Man you don’t base a definition on tolerance, therefore you don’t know what you’re talking about…So by your standard, If i come to you and shove a cellphone in your pocket and tell you that you have to use it, see it or buy it i’m not being intrusive is that it??…Humm you have a wide sense of what intrusive is.

  37. Ah and the ads i don’t see them i use ad blocking software since youtube implemented ads that auto-start and make me watch them even if it’s for 5 seconds, it just rude to force anything onto someone