YouTube Plans to Offer Paid Subscriptions to Skip Ads
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Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The more than 1 billion YouTube users may soon be able to skip those pesky ads, but for a price.
The video-sharing service, currently in 75 countries and available in 61 languages, is planning to offer a paid subscription model that will allow customers to skip some ads.
YouTube notified a large group of partners that the company is updating its terms to allow partners to receive revenue from subscription offerings, Bloomberg reported. But the company maintains that its ads business is still its core. Creators could potentially make more money, along with YouTube, by profiting from these subscriptions. The time frame and pricing have yet to be decided, the company said, though it may involve a monthly fee.
A YouTube spokesperson told ABC News, “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.”
Each day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of videos on YouTube that generate billions of views, the company said. People spent more time watching Super Bowl ads on YouTube in the first six weeks of this year than in all 52 weeks of 2014, making the 2015 Super Bowl YouTube’s most successful.
YouTube already introduced its subscription “Music Key Beta” last year, which provides music without ads for $10 a month. YouTube faces stiff competition from other paid online video services, such as HBO Go, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
While the company produced revenue of $4 billion last year, up from $3 billion from 2013, it’s not excessively profitable. The bottom line of YouTube, which is owned by Google, is “roughly break-even,” the Wall Street Journal reported in February.
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