It’s no secret that YouTube is working to become a major player in the media-streaming business. Having already succeeded in becoming the world’s largest video-sharing website, they intend to turn themselves into complete video delivery platform. YouTube already has a pay-per-view service that allows users to rent movies and television shows. Now they’re delving into the realm of paid subscriptions.
Their new service includes 53 new channels that users must pay for in order to subscribe and watch videos. The subscription fees start at $.99 per month but the price can be changed by the owners of the channel. While the majority of the channels stay below the $4.99 mark, a few of them go all the way up to $9.99 per month. Some channels also offer a yearly subscription that costs between $17.99 and $67.99 per year.
Fortunately, users are allowed a two week long free trial in order to test out the channels before they subscribe to them. Once subscribed, users can view all of their paid channels’ videos on their phones, tablets, computers, or even televisions so long as the television is connected to some sort of media-streaming device.
The current content offerings are quite meager but if things go well, YouTube should start pursuing more premium content. Although, with services like Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu that already have a well-established foothold on media-streaming, YouTube might not want to wade too far into that market. Internet television is becoming increasingly popular and the competition is intense.
People love the convenience of being able to watch whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. As mentioned here, this is the reason that internet television is beginning to replace linear television as our main source of entertainment, and YouTube wants to be a part of that.
If there’s any service that could compete with Netflix or Amazon, it’s YouTube. It’s not limited to movies and television shows. Anyone with an account and a video camera can make and submit content to YouTube. The YouTube Partner Program allows users to then generate revenue from their videos through advertisements. With this program can make money off of their videos.
The ability to monetize their videos is one of the main reasons that so many users post their content on YouTube, and this new subscription service gives them another way to do that. Over a million channels generate revenue on YouTube. Their success attracts more users, which adds more content to the site, which means more money is being made, which then attracts more users, and the cycle continues. It’s because of this cycle that YouTube has become so popular with viewers, small-time video makers, and large corporations alike.
YouTube has the capability to compete in internet television market, but that doesn’t mean they’ll succeed. It all depends on how well this new system works. Many people have high hopes for the service though and while it may not become a threat anytime soon, the completion should still be worried.
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