YouTube is currently an ad supported system with a small system where you can donate or tip your favorite YouTubers. YouTube did a soft launch of a subscription model for individual channels and videos. The Google owned company will soon offer a way to avoid pre-roll ads, but not the in ad videos some YouTubers have began adding into the middle of their videos.
Speaking at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference on Monday, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcickirevealed the company’s plans to offer ad-free subscriptions. She didn’t offer any specifics and said YouTube is still exploring the idea. “YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads,” she said.
YouTube will be more like Hulu which has ads for users who don’t pay but also has a paid option for exclusive content and has still ads but much less. This may be another attempt from the company to help pay its YouTube creators more money, but no price nor how YouTubers would get cut of this.
The price point would be a huge draw if YouTube sets the monthly amount at or around $5. It’s more likely the company will set the ad-free amount at $10 like most music subscriptions and similarly priced to Netflix. Tell us in the comments below what you think about a Ad-Free subscription and if you’ll subscribe to it.