Why is there no (ad-free) YouTube Premium?

[peteforde]

The only thing worse than pre-roll ads on videos are the ads that pop-up mid-stream.

The real problem I have with video advertising is how much it messes with the user experience. I don't know if I'm going to see a pre-roll, a pop-up, both or neither. It's incredibly jarring when you're trying to get into the correct headspace to watch a video.

I'd happily pay $10-20/month or $150/year to not have ads in YouTube. Take my money, please. I've never clicked on a single one of your ads, and I want to support your service.

[wikwocket]

Probably for the same reason that there isn't a Google Search Premium (that doesn't show you ads). And probably for the same reason that even if you pay for Hulu Plus, they still show you ads.

We could speculate that this is because the ads are too lucrative for them, or because they want to offer advertisers the widest market possible (with no opt-out), or because they want to preserve their image as a "free resource" as opposed to a seller of premium plans.

I don't know to what degree those reasons may be valid, but when companies this big choose not to monetize a channel, there is usually a strategic reason.

[tehwebguy]

As far as I know Google doesn't really offer meaningful support for just about any of their web products. Something like this would require significant support.

[Donito]

There's hidden cost associated with offering a paid membership for "privileged" users, in that it affects the overall perception of the product. Many non-paying users would feel negatively about it, and start looking for alternatives. As a result, the membership fee has to cover (1 + lost users) advertisement revenue.

[DanBC]

I, also, would pay to avoid ads.

I use a mobile broadband dongle, and ads eat the monthly bandwidth I have available.

Some ads are remarkably bad. I have no interest in watching a 4 minute ad before a 30 minute video. I run the ads to support the platform and the content creator, but I'm usually on a different tab.

[aet]

Could be due to password sharing. Maybe ad revenues are preferred. I'm thinking about Netflix where there is rampant password sharing.

[timmm]

Adblock works, but youtube should definitely offer this. I guess the problem is that they are an advertising business.

[dholowiski]

Um,because Google makes more money from showing you those ads then you could pay them to not show you.

[mertd → dholowiski]

Do they make an infinite amount per user? Because if they are making $N every year from me watching ads, I could pay them $N + 1.

[aet → mertd]

Your willingness to pay is probably W << N.

[OmleteDuFromage]

Use Adblock?

[peteforde → OmleteDuFromage]

Adblock doesn't really do much for pre-roll video ads, or pop-up ads within a video.

[marco-fiset → peteforde]

I've never seen an ad on YouTube since 2 years of using AdBlock. Maybe you should reconsider.