Google’s YouTube has launched a pilot programme for subscription channels.
At the start, there are 53 ‘paid channels’ with subscription fees starting at $0.99 (EUR0.84) per month. All channels have a 14-day free trial and are free of commercials.
Users subscribe to the channels from a computer, and then have access to their paid channels on their smartphones, tablets and TVs.
Early content partners include Jim Henson Family TV , Big Star Movies, HD Net, UFC Select, Comedy.TV, Recipe TV and National Geographic Kids. Most channels are only available to viewers in the US.
“This is just the beginning. We’ll be rolling paid channels out more broadly in the coming weeks as a self-service feature for qualifying partners,” according to YouTube’s official blog.
“And as new channels appear, we’ll be making sure you can discover them, just as we’ve been helping you find and subscribe to all the channels you love across YouTube.”
Google said that at the moment there are one million YouTube channels generating revenue. Until now, advertisements were the only source of income for these channels.
Broadband TV Views. There are a few big names (Jim Henson, NatGeo) among the first paid channels on YouTube, but it remains to be seen if people are willing to part with a monthly subscription fee, even if it is as “low as $0.99”.
This looks like small change, but if you want to subscribe to a couple of channels, it can add up quickly and, as a result, will compare unfavourably with all-you-can-eat subscriptions from Hulu Plus and Netflix – who offer a better variety of content.
Interestingly, content providers can now try a system of true a-la-carte tiering. Rather than bundling a large number of channels, as most cable, DTH and IPTV platforms do, people can now choose and pick their favourite channels.
In paper, this looks fine – who wants to pay for content you don’t watch? But, as experience will show, it will be more expensive for the viewer to have a-la-carte subscriptions rather than bundles.
