YouTube Unveils Paid Channel Subscription Service

YouTube took to their blog today to announce a subscription-based model of monetization on some of their biggest channels. Everyone take a deep breath, the world is not ending. Now that we have all calmed down, let’s look at this rationally. YouTube’s post mentions that they were approached by many of their already money-making partners and asked for different ways to monetize and distribute content. Starting today with a select few channels, paid monthly subscriptions have come to YouTube.

Each channel comes with a two week free trial of the channel so you can decide if you want to lay down real money for the content. Prices range from $0.99 per month up to $5.99 per month. These channels will obviously be pushing quality content fairly often. For example, the Sesame Street channel will start posting full episodes to their collection and the UFC channel will host classic fights along with their newer ones.

Once you pay for a channel, it is linked to your Google account so you can watch it from your computer, TV, tablet or phone. YouTube says they will be rolling out more paid channels over the next few weeks so this is just the beginning from what it looks like.

Thoughts?

Via: YouTube