While YouTube and subscription haven’t even been remotely related to each other in any scenario till date, it looks like the Google-owned video site may soon be going the subscription way, at least for some of its content.
A report in Variety (via The Verge), suggests that YouTube is “exploring the prospect of launching its own subscription VOD service.“.
It is being said that the new subscription based VOD service may function under the YouTube Originals banner, and would probably show a bit of video content for free, in order to lure in viewers to subscribe to watch the remaining.
The report further says that the new subscription-based service may be modelled around YouTube’s music key. Music Key is a subscription-based music service by YouTube, which provides you ad-free access to music videos and some 30 million songs on Google Play Music. The introductory price for MusicKey is $7.99, for a six-month duration.
So why subscription ? Well, websites like Vimeo, Hulu etc. have been gaining significant traction, as they are offering a larger chunk of their ad revenues to YouTube stars to host videos exclusively on their platform. And once those stars host exclusive videos on rival platforms, viewer-ship is set to divert.
The other probable reason for this SVOD service is YouTube’s not-so profitable run. While the video site did break even, it pulled in just about $4 billion of revenue, which is a Billion up from $3 billion in 2013, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous sources. Anonymous, because Google doesn’t disclose YouTube’s financials.
However, the Google-owned vidsite isn’t just sitting back. The company has been employing new measures, and that too an aggressive pace, to make sure it continues to hold the crown for a longer time. A recent example of such measures, was the launch of YouTube for Kids app, aimed at capturing the virtually untouched, toddler segment of viewers.
Considering that this is probably a speculation, we still aren’t sure as to how YouTube plans to go about subscription. We’ve contacted YouTube and will update the article once we receive a statement.
