MUMBAI: Popular video sharing site YouTube is expected to announce the launch of a series of its new paid channels in the coming weeks. The new paid channels will be in addition to its existing free channels that receive more than a billion hits monthly. It is not clear if the new channels will be advertisement-free. Earlier reports from the media had said viewers could be charged as little as $ 1.99.
In a statement, YouTube said it is looking into creating a “subscription platform” that provides its partners with a way to generate revenue beyond video rentals and placing ads in and around content. It said, however, that it had “nothing to announce at this time.”
Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion in 2006 when the video site had an estimated 50 million users worldwide. Today, the site boasts more than 1 billion visitors a month.
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Executives had hinted at the coming pay channels at a preview event in March ahead of a meeting in New York with advertisers report said.
A paid channel would be vastly different from the current free version which generates revenue from advertisers through popular videos like Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’. The paid version will focus on niche audiences willing to pay for the content.
“For people who create great value but for only a narrow interest group, I think that the potential for pay channels unlocks opportunities for creating revenue streams,” YouTube’s vice president of sales and marketing Lucas Watson has reportedly stated.
YouTube has invested over $ 200 million in dozens of channels to include professionally produced videos beyond user-generated content for celebs such as Madonna, Jay-Z, Ashton Kutcher, Sofia Vergara andShaquille O’Neal.
“It’s a whole new skill set to develop: to convince people to actually take out their credit card, even for one cent,” said, YouTube’s vice president and global head of content partnerships, Robert Kyncl said in March.
