6 ms·

YouTube Set to Introduce Paid Subscriptions This Spring

52 points by jdrummond 14y ago

nextstep 14y ago
It's disappointing they're going to have ads on these paid videos. Like with Hulu+, I see no point in paying if the experience is still shitty.
- timdorr 14y ago
  Is it so crazy to offer an ad-free option? I see a video interstitial on nearly every YouTube video I watch. Maybe I'm not aware of the costs involved, but I feel like I would be willing to pay whatever the cost of those ads are back to YouTube to avoid them. Same goes for Hulu+. Does anyone with some more insight know why they don't offer such an option?
  - yajoe 14y ago
    At least in my industry (I work with digital media and ads), part of the terms large advertisers insist on is being able to advertise new content on existing content. Part of the reason for that is people's eyes are on existing content, so it makes sense. But part of the reason is to ensure that people know when episode 343 of sing-covers-together show ends that there is another, new sing-covers-competition show ready to watch. How else will you know to keep consuming if you only use the youtube search box and have an ad-free existence? The ads are there not because of costs (they help, of course), but ironically as a mechanism to ensure you keep coming back.
    - netfire 14y ago
      How else will you know to keep consuming if you only use the youtube search box and have an ad-free existence? Really? The only way to educate users about other similar shows is to interrupt the viewing experience with intrusive ads? If I like the video I am watching, I'm going to go to the creator's profile or channel or just click on one of the videos that appear after I've finished watching. Personally, I find these ads annoying and not effective. (I can't remember the last time I clicked on an in-video ad) There seems to be this idea in marketing that if you promote yourself in a way that forces the user to be exposed to your message, you will be more effective and successful. The more effective companies, however, seem to focus on creating advertising that people want to see and create products that people like to use and will recommend.
      - yajoe 14y ago
        The sarcasm may not have been overt enough -- I personally find their reasoning dubious as well. One point. People who are advertising often aren't the same people who made the existing content. They want you to discover content you otherwise would not have come across. Hence, why they prefer to advertise and interrupt you. Advertising in general is a very big topic, one I personally dislike, but in general exposure to a message makes a person more likely to purchase something all other things being equal. I recommend you look into brand campaigns and anchoring. There are many successful campaigns done by companies for which consumers hated the ads; we should see one from a minor soda company at the super bowl, for example. Edit: I hadn't seen the SodaStream ad until now. It clearly fits the 'make products people want' category and is only derided by competitors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9U4mMqKP4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9U4mMqKP4
  - smackfu 14y ago
    Advertisers are very opposed to "pay to get rid of our ads". The people who choose that obviously have more discretionary money and are the exact people the advertisers are targeting.
    - CamperBob2 14y ago
      Still, there's got to be an equilibrium amount that I can pay to release my eyeballs from bondage to the advertisers.
    - dinkumthinkum 14y ago
      That's a really good point; I think it deserves to be echoed. However, the idea of paying for YouTube and getting ads and still having the cesspool of racism that are YouTube comments, seems not so attractive.
  - Osmium 14y ago
    Tip: HTML5 videos don't have ads. I use Safari on OS X, so I use a "ClickToPlugin" extension (linked below) which gives me the option of replacing the Flash plugin with just a plain mp4 video when you click on the plugin placeholder. This has the side benefit of bypassing any ads and also not showing any annoying annotations that've been added to the video. http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/ http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/
    - foobarqux 14y ago
      Or just use Adblock.
    - gizmo686 14y ago
      Actually, the HTML5 videos do have adds (although they seem to occur less frequently than flash. Maybe becuase I right-click and 'pop-out' to get an HTML5 player). However, looking at the source, the video tag with the actual content is populated onload, and the add has its own tag, so even a naive attempt at automaticly replacing the flash player with HTML5 would accidently bypass the add.
  - TruthElixirX 14y ago
    YouTube has gotten really bad with ads. They have a higher proportion of ads than regular TV. Want to watch a 3 minute music video? here is an ad. I am against using ad block, so I just quit going to Youtube as much.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- csense 14y ago
  > they're going to have ads on these paid videos Please read the article; that is not what it said. Ads will be at the discretion of the content provider. This means there will be within-Youtube competition between ad-free and ad-supported content providers. Which should hopefully help the free market establish the standard premium for an ad-free experience.
rayiner 14y ago
There is a price discrimination opportunity here, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of parental paranoia. "Subscribe to Facetube for only $49.99 per month and ensure that your kid's viewing habits won't end up in some employer background check in the future!" I'd buy it.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
OP's link served an ad to me before I could see the page. Screw that - this is all over everywhere else w/ no ad-before-you-read: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/report-youtube-launch-paid-subscriptions/story?id=18344933 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/report-youtube-launch-paid-... http://mashable.com/2013/01/29/youtube-paid-channel-subscriptions/ http://mashable.com/2013/01/29/youtube-paid-channel-subscrip... http://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-subscriptions-networks-paid-bundles/ http://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-subscriptions-networks-... http://thenextweb.com/2013/01/29/youtube-could-roll-out-paid-subscriptions-for-select-channels-as-early-as-this-spring/ http://thenextweb.com/2013/01/29/youtube-could-roll-out-paid...
- Evbn 14y ago
  But those links don't give the immersive YouTube experience. Interstitial ads are the core of the experience.

52 points by jdrummond 14y ago

It's disappointing they're going to have ads on these paid videos. Like with Hulu+, I see no point in paying if the experience is still shitty.

timdorr 14y ago
Is it so crazy to offer an ad-free option? I see a video interstitial on nearly every YouTube video I watch. Maybe I'm not aware of the costs involved, but I feel like I would be willing to pay whatever the cost of those ads are back to YouTube to avoid them. Same goes for Hulu+. Does anyone with some more insight know why they don't offer such an option?
- yajoe 14y ago
  At least in my industry (I work with digital media and ads), part of the terms large advertisers insist on is being able to advertise new content on existing content. Part of the reason for that is people's eyes are on existing content, so it makes sense. But part of the reason is to ensure that people know when episode 343 of sing-covers-together show ends that there is another, new sing-covers-competition show ready to watch. How else will you know to keep consuming if you only use the youtube search box and have an ad-free existence? The ads are there not because of costs (they help, of course), but ironically as a mechanism to ensure you keep coming back.
  - netfire 14y ago
    How else will you know to keep consuming if you only use the youtube search box and have an ad-free existence? Really? The only way to educate users about other similar shows is to interrupt the viewing experience with intrusive ads? If I like the video I am watching, I'm going to go to the creator's profile or channel or just click on one of the videos that appear after I've finished watching. Personally, I find these ads annoying and not effective. (I can't remember the last time I clicked on an in-video ad) There seems to be this idea in marketing that if you promote yourself in a way that forces the user to be exposed to your message, you will be more effective and successful. The more effective companies, however, seem to focus on creating advertising that people want to see and create products that people like to use and will recommend.
    - yajoe 14y ago
      The sarcasm may not have been overt enough -- I personally find their reasoning dubious as well. One point. People who are advertising often aren't the same people who made the existing content. They want you to discover content you otherwise would not have come across. Hence, why they prefer to advertise and interrupt you. Advertising in general is a very big topic, one I personally dislike, but in general exposure to a message makes a person more likely to purchase something all other things being equal. I recommend you look into brand campaigns and anchoring. There are many successful campaigns done by companies for which consumers hated the ads; we should see one from a minor soda company at the super bowl, for example. Edit: I hadn't seen the SodaStream ad until now. It clearly fits the 'make products people want' category and is only derided by competitors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9U4mMqKP4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9U4mMqKP4
- smackfu 14y ago
  Advertisers are very opposed to "pay to get rid of our ads". The people who choose that obviously have more discretionary money and are the exact people the advertisers are targeting.
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    Still, there's got to be an equilibrium amount that I can pay to release my eyeballs from bondage to the advertisers.
  - dinkumthinkum 14y ago
    That's a really good point; I think it deserves to be echoed. However, the idea of paying for YouTube and getting ads and still having the cesspool of racism that are YouTube comments, seems not so attractive.
- Osmium 14y ago
  Tip: HTML5 videos don't have ads. I use Safari on OS X, so I use a "ClickToPlugin" extension (linked below) which gives me the option of replacing the Flash plugin with just a plain mp4 video when you click on the plugin placeholder. This has the side benefit of bypassing any ads and also not showing any annoying annotations that've been added to the video. http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/ http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/
  - foobarqux 14y ago
    Or just use Adblock.
  - gizmo686 14y ago
    Actually, the HTML5 videos do have adds (although they seem to occur less frequently than flash. Maybe becuase I right-click and 'pop-out' to get an HTML5 player). However, looking at the source, the video tag with the actual content is populated onload, and the add has its own tag, so even a naive attempt at automaticly replacing the flash player with HTML5 would accidently bypass the add.
- TruthElixirX 14y ago
  YouTube has gotten really bad with ads. They have a higher proportion of ads than regular TV. Want to watch a 3 minute music video? here is an ad. I am against using ad block, so I just quit going to Youtube as much.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
csense 14y ago
> they're going to have ads on these paid videos Please read the article; that is not what it said. Ads will be at the discretion of the content provider. This means there will be within-Youtube competition between ad-free and ad-supported content providers. Which should hopefully help the free market establish the standard premium for an ad-free experience.

rayiner 14y ago

There is a price discrimination opportunity here, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of parental paranoia. "Subscribe to Facetube for only $49.99 per month and ensure that your kid's viewing habits won't end up in some employer background check in the future!" I'd buy it.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

OP's link served an ad to me before I could see the page. Screw that - this is all over everywhere else w/ no ad-before-you-read: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/report-youtube-launch-paid-subscriptions/story?id=18344933 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/report-youtube-launch-paid-... http://mashable.com/2013/01/29/youtube-paid-channel-subscriptions/ http://mashable.com/2013/01/29/youtube-paid-channel-subscrip... http://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-subscriptions-networks-paid-bundles/ http://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-subscriptions-networks-... http://thenextweb.com/2013/01/29/youtube-could-roll-out-paid-subscriptions-for-select-channels-as-early-as-this-spring/ http://thenextweb.com/2013/01/29/youtube-could-roll-out-paid...

Evbn 14y ago
But those links don't give the immersive YouTube experience. Interstitial ads are the core of the experience.