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YouTube to launch an ad-free subscription, which will also offer offline viewing


by AshwinApril 9, 2015

Let’s face it, people hate online ads, be it a small banner in a mobile app or game, or a huge one displayed on a website.


Even the world’s most popular video sharing website, YouTube has ads.

Video ads often consume precious bandwidth, and users who cannot afford expensive data packages are often let frowning in frustration. Tech-savvy users opt to imply workarounds such as add-ons or extensions which disables ads, or block them entirely.

What most people find to be an annoyance, is also the bread earner for many. Yes, we are talking about content makers, more specifically YouTube video makes. They rely on ads to make their money, and when you block them, they do not get their earnings, its pretty obvious.

So, should you feel guilty for blocking them or be annoyed? Well, perhaps there is a solution for this dilemma.

According to a new report, YouTube is sending out an email to its partners (creators), about something that could be launched later this year. The email says that the company is preparing to launch a paid subscription service. Subscribers of said service, will be able to watch videos sans advertisements, and also have added bonus of storing the videos offline on mobile devices. Of course there are lots of ways to download videos, but they aren’t legal.

The Verge reports from its sources, that the subscription fee for the service could be approximately $10 per month. Additionally this will reportedly offer content creators to offer premium only videos, i.e, users will not be able to watch the videos without a subscription.

This is not the first time we are hearing about a premium service from YouTube. Back in November 2014, it announced YouTube Music Key which is still in a beta-only program. It offers music fans an ad-free experience when they watch music videos at the website, and also allows them to download the music videos for offline access, and background playback. It was supposed to have a $7.99 price tag when it would be released.

This sounds very similar to the new unnamed service, which we are discussing in this article.

Here’s how the earnings will be split between YouTube and its partners. YouTube will get about 45% of the revenue from subscriptions, while content creators will get the lion’s share of 55%. Think that sounds good ? Here is the catch, content creators will be paid depending on various criteria which includes the time that viewers spend on their channels. So if viewers don’t spend much time, or if a channel has a small viewer base, they won’t earn much.

And it only gets worse, creators who do not accept to the subscription terms, will have their videos set to private. So, there is literally no choice for them, but to agree.

This is what a YouTube spokeswoman wrote in an email,

 “While we can’t comment on ongoing discussions, giving fans more choice to enjoy the content they love and creators more opportunity to earn revenue are always amongst our top priorities,”

The service is likely go head on to compete with rival streaming services such as Vessel, which was developed by former Hulu employees. Unlike Youtube’s proposed $10 subscription fee, Vessel only charges $2.99 per month.

And here is the screenshot of the letter sent out by YouTube in an email to creators. (courtesy: Bloomberg)


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