 "YouTube VP says subscription channels 'incredibly important'")
While rumours of a subscription-based model on YouTube are rife, none other than the VP of the video sharing website has added fuel to them. Robert Kyncl emphasised on the importance of subscription-based channels in order to help content creators.
The Wall Street Journal reported Kyncl telling a group of reporters in Los Angeles that “It’s incredibly important” as a tool to create additional revenue streams for makers of Web videos. He also said that while it won’t be easy for video makers to get viewers to take out a credit card before watching a show, there will be a lot of experimentation and, “over time, a lot of people will figure it out.”
YouTube’s mind is on the money
However, in a bit of an anticlimactic move, Kyncl said that YouTube had “nothing to announce” as far as paid subscriptions go. While YouTube may not be ready to unveil the model to the world yet, this is probably the first time someone from YouTube has publicly spoken about and acknowledged the need for subscription-based original content channels on the site.
YouTube’s parent company Google has been making waves by expressing its wish to introduce a music subscription model on a couple of its services. The company seems to be working on a YouTube feature that will offer subscription-based service even as Google Play has sought license to stream music.
According to a Fortune report, the planning for the YouTube streaming service is going ahead full steam with a negotiating team and an operating unit of its own. The service, however, is bound to overlap with Google’s other pet music project on Google Play for Android.
YouTube undeniably is a huge trove of music, with most people preferring to turn to the video streaming service for music over any other service. According to a Nielsen “Music 360” report from 2012, a whopping 64 percent of teens chose YouTube over any other music listening and discovery engine. In return for accessing music, YouTube does not charge the user but plays advertisements out instead. The idea of letting go of advertisements, which are pretty unpopular with users, and getting them to pay for what they hear seems like a very logical move to make for Google.
YouTube definitely has the audience for a subscription model. Only this week, the social video hosting website announced that it is now serving one billion viewers every month. Considering YouTube is only eight years old, this is some achievement.
In a blog post announcing the milestone, YouTube wrote, “In the last eight years you’ve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences…And today, we’re announcing a new milestone: YouTube now has more than a billion unique users every single month.”
Showing just how seriously businesses take YouTube, the video hosting site wrote that every single brand listed in the Ad Age Top 100 list is running a campaign on YouTube. The site’s social connect is a great tool for marketers and advertisers to exploit equally.
The stage is set for YouTube – it has the tools to launch a subscription channel and a captive audience that will lap it up. We might just get paid YouTube channels this year.
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