Youtube May Soon Charge Users
By JERRY HOFFMAN
Staff Writer
YouTube is in the process of creating an ad-free service for its users to watch YouTube videos without having to deal with the annoyance of advertisements before hand; the only catch is, there will be a fee.
The video streaming website owned by Google made the announcement on Wednesday, April 8 through e-mails sent to producers of top video content which were further obtained by various media outlets. While the e-mail failed to mention a price or a date when the service would be available, it is believed that YouTube could be ad-free for willing users by the end of 2015.
While it seems like a great idea to do without the hassle of advertisements and still make a profit, many are wondering if people are willing to pay for such a service.
“I’m not going to pay for it and I doubt very many people will,” said Parker Ganassin, junior. “Even if the advertisement isn’t available to skip after five seconds, how hard is it to just open another tab and do something else online while it finishes? Or run to the kitchen to grab a glass of water to enjoy while you watch your YouTube video? I really don’t see anyone paying a substantial amount of money for this.”
YouTube is currently pushing for their partners who advertise before the videos to allow their commercials to be included in the new ad-free service. If they refuse, it is believed that YouTube will make it nearly impossible for casual users to find the videos and make the videos private so that people selected by the video owner can only view them.
“The most I’d pay is $3 as a flat fee,” said Tess Thompson, freshman. “I definitely wouldn’t pay a monthly fee for it.”
Many still believe that YouTube should return to its ad-free service without charging people for it, but as it stands it looks like paying for ad-free YouTube videos may be the best that Internet users can do.