Youtube's new pay to watch option

[LFP]

As I'm sure many of you are aware of, youtube is soon going to implement a "pay to watch" 'feature'.

Basically it's said to be two things; one: a subscription option where you pay monthly to gain access to certain videos etc the channel you subscribed to has chosen. And two: channels only available for paying people will ben made more and more..

Here's a source; http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business ... ube/64896/ this gives a more negative opinion on the thing but shells out some useful information about the thing..

There's also official announcements made by google although also very one sided on the situation.

There's also some inside info coming from a swedish news cast (SVT) saying that if the subscribe method works out we would see youtube becoming completely pay to watch with a 2$ month for you to be able to watch 50 different channels... Although SVT is a very reliable source being owned by the state of sweden and often not one to take sides I doubt that there's any full info on that and that the content was twisted into an opinion or assumption quickly...

Personally I wouldn't mind channels being made for only paying customers too much as that would most likely involve tv shows etc and that'll be like a normal tv right? (afraid of change.jpg)

However, I would mind having special videos being payed for, as that is likely going to affect the current content one would get, people putting more effort into pay videos and less into normal ones or offering x series of videos only as pay to watch now..
I think most of the famous people on youtube is going to try to avoid this to not lose any subscriber or get any worse reputation, however it may very likely be put in by highlight videos, guide series, perhaps people will offer music releases a week early for those who has subscribed with pay to watch option etc...

Thoughts on this?

[Nine Volt]

Fuck that.

Those are my thoughts.

e: Upon further review, I'm relieved to find that these are more TV program type things. I highly doubt most Youtubers will do this with their videos, to avoid a bad reputation and to avoid losing subscribers in droves. But if youtube ever switches to fully pay to view...

[prozeyic]

I don't like the idea of Youtube becoming like a TV network. Things are getting too professional for my tastes. That said I don't mind pay to watch as long as it doesn't take over the site.

[the4thImpulse]

There is nothing wrong with a tv production company/channel uploading their content to a youtube channel that requires a subscription fee. Its their content, they can charge for it, and I would rather pay for that than cable. Then I could watch what I want to watch, whenever I want to watch it, for a cheaper price then the standard cable subscription.


If they are going to charge me to watch cute cat videos (and any other non-copyrighted content) then my, very, mature opinion would be...

And then I will leave youtube.

[LFP]

http://www.youtube.com/channels/paid_channels the list of paid channels is growing but it's mostly just as mentioned tv shows, documentaries etc, which I personally don't mind at all.
As long as it doesn't affect the content we have currently..

There is nothing wrong with a tv production company/channel uploading their content to a youtube channel that requires a subscription fee. Its their content, they can charge for it, and I would rather pay for that than cable. Then I could watch what I want to watch, whenever I want to watch it, for a cheaper price then the standard cable subscription.


If they are going to charge me to watch cute cat videos (and any other non-copyrighted content) then my, very, mature opinion would be...

And then I will leave youtube.

pretty much this, however I am worried about the "pay for extra videos", as it might remove a lot of the content we currently have..

[Lying Pink]

There is nothing wrong with a tv production company/channel uploading their content to a youtube channel that requires a subscription fee. Its their content, they can charge for it, and I would rather pay for that than cable.

Surely that is a more valid defence of the companies who would use the service, rather than of YouTube itself for providing it? But yeah, I guess if the market's there, then *shrug*

I don't have the money to pay for Youtube Gold. If this happens I'll just have to go somewhere else when I want to show people stupid cat videos at 3 in the morning.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Can't say I didn't expect this.

It probably won't ruin Youtube or anything (...Probably) but it'll probably cause some lnconvenience.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Machinima and IGN and gonna do it for certain.

[itroitnyah]

Yeah, I'm pretty much fine with this, as long as it's mostly used for what people above are saying, for tv shows or something. If people like Freddiew, AmazingAtheist, RWJ, or other big people did this, that would be a huge dick in the ass. And of course there will be the people who think they'll earn big bucks by making some "awesome" video and making it pay to watch, lul, only to fail miserably earning almost no money at all.

[Captain Ironhelm]

they've had this for a while, I thought. Like Ed VS. has been pay to view episodes for a long time. My understanding is that it's completely optional to the content producers. Therefore it'd be their choice, so it's all pretty cool.

[LFP]

they've had this for a while, I thought. Like Ed VS. has been pay to view episodes for a long time. My understanding is that it's completely optional to the content producers. Therefore it'd be their choice, so it's all pretty cool.

a subscription option where you pay monthly to gain access to certain videos etc the channel you subscribed to has chosen.

This part though, it is what worries me.
As optional as it might sound I'd most likely have to pay to watch certain things such as game commentaries, highlights etc or miss out on a lot of stuff..

[Lavender_Harmony]

I would love to see more subscription based tutorial and teaching course channels, where you pay to get access to the lessons and such, rather than subscribing to offsite content which is complicated to set up. If its accessible I may look into it for my own teaching as a source of income.

[ganondox]

Well, some people using IE are going to download stuff and reupload them.

[JSynth]

I would love to see more subscription based tutorial and teaching course channels, where you pay to get access to the lessons and such, rather than subscribing to offsite content which is complicated to set up. If its accessible I may look into it for my own teaching as a source of income.

I would sub to that.

If YouTube were to go fully pay to watch (which I highly doubt that it would) then I would simply find another source to stream cat videos from.

[simonli2575]

Input: Make paid subscriptions available
Process: Users rage at this seemingly idiotic decision
Output: Many of the paid YouTube videos become available on torrent websites such as TPB

People who will profit from it: Rare paid channel owners
People who will lose from it: Common paid channel owners

[Freewave]

Not a horrible idea but its just another one of those shops that will offer something similar to netflix online or hulu premium (which does suck i must add). There's only so many extras that people will be want to add to their cable / internet bills which are high already. This isn't that different when everyone wanted to offer paid for mp3's post-napster but pre-itunes. They al died out until itunes became the single large one-stop shop. If ytube can offer some new exclsuive programming (as she said HQ music production courses) and at a fair price then i'd be more ok with it. I could see a lot of people THINKING they'll switch to something like this only to see people not bother paying to view anymore.

[ph00tbag]

Charging to watch cat videos is just plain evil.

I think this is fine if the intent is to charge for movies and tv shows and the like, but I can see attempts being made to manufacture viral videos just to get paid views, which would really diminish the value of the internet for democratizing entertainment.

[Stars In Autumn]

Good opportunities for some, but sucks if you're a kid/teenager with no income. A lot of new stuff will suddenly hide behind a subscription for you.

[Applejinx]

If you can put up adult content, this would be awesome. It's actually quite hard to set up such things with credit card companies etc. and that is the 'wedge' that drove VHS adoption. If they are smart they'll set it up so that you can get stuff you can't readily get on the existing YouTube, with the assumption that if you can pay for it you're an adult and if you're paying you don't get to complain that it's being inflicted on you and the general public.