
YouTube Set to Introduce Paid Subscriptions This Spring - jdrummond
http://adage.com/article/digital/youtube-set-introduce-paid-subscriptions-spring/239437/
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nextstep
It's disappointing they're going to have ads on these paid videos. Like with
Hulu+, I see no point in paying if the experience is still shitty.

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timdorr
Is it so crazy to offer an ad-free option? I see a video interstitial on
nearly every YouTube video I watch. Maybe I'm not aware of the costs involved,
but I feel like I would be willing to pay whatever the cost of those ads are
back to YouTube to avoid them. Same goes for Hulu+.

Does anyone with some more insight know why they don't offer such an option?

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Osmium
Tip: HTML5 videos don't have ads. I use Safari on OS X, so I use a
"ClickToPlugin" extension (linked below) which gives me the option of
replacing the Flash plugin with just a plain mp4 video when you click on the
plugin placeholder. This has the side benefit of bypassing any ads and also
not showing any annoying annotations that've been added to the video.

<http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/>

~~~
gizmo686
Actually, the HTML5 videos do have adds (although they seem to occur less
frequently than flash. Maybe becuase I right-click and 'pop-out' to get an
HTML5 player). However, looking at the source, the video tag with the actual
content is populated onload, and the add has its own tag, so even a naive
attempt at automaticly replacing the flash player with HTML5 would accidently
bypass the add.

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ScottWhigham
OP's link served an ad to me before I could see the page. Screw that - this is
all over everywhere else w/ no ad-before-you-read:

[http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/report-youtube-launch-
paid-...](http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/report-youtube-launch-paid-
subscriptions/story?id=18344933)

[http://mashable.com/2013/01/29/youtube-paid-channel-
subscrip...](http://mashable.com/2013/01/29/youtube-paid-channel-
subscriptions/)

[http://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-subscriptions-
networks-...](http://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-subscriptions-networks-
paid-bundles/)

[http://thenextweb.com/2013/01/29/youtube-could-roll-out-
paid...](http://thenextweb.com/2013/01/29/youtube-could-roll-out-paid-
subscriptions-for-select-channels-as-early-as-this-spring/)

~~~
Evbn
But those links don't give the immersive YouTube experience. Interstitial ads
are the core of the experience.

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rayiner
There is a price discrimination opportunity here, as well as the opportunity
to take advantage of parental paranoia. "Subscribe to Facetube for only $49.99
per month and ensure that your kid's viewing habits won't end up in some
employer background check in the future!"

I'd buy it.

