According to some reports a YouTube subscription for some of its partner channels is on the cards? If they do, will it become a cable competitor, or will it simply kill those partner channels?
In an article at MediaPost called Will YouTube’s Subscription Push Kill Cable?,  Rich Routman reports:
Based on early reports, YouTube’s initial subscriptions will be limited to select channels. While it appears monthly fees will mainly be charged for access to new content, the key here is that YouTube is asking consumers to decide how to spend on the individual channels that they want to pay for. If these channels are successful at getting audiences to adopt a paid model, they’ll then likely generate higher revenues than ad-based models.
Now, personally I’d rather pay a small amount that watch ads, but I’m not sure that the majority of people want the direct connection between their media consumption and money! The bigger issue is whether or not people will start to consider YouTube a challenger for cable content.
I think not: the nature of content – while getting closer – is very different on YouTube than on Cable or Broadcast, but it will be an interesting experiment. Will you pay a YouTube subscription for any of the partner channels? If so, how much and which YouTube channels.
3 replies on “How will a YouTube subscription change the landscape?”
So far for the most part YouTube videos seem like one-hit-wonder bands to me. I may really like one video, but any others on that channel that I check out easily make the one I like look like an anomaly.
And I’ve yet to find a web series interesting enough to watch past the first ep or two. If the next Breaking Bad shows up on a YouTube channel you’d have something.
However, I’m way outside the YouTube demo. If Smosh (the currently highest subscribed to channel), is indicative of the type of content that will be commodified on YouTube, the cable channels have nothing to worry about.
This is not going to work, and let me tell you why. I was shocked yesterday, when I was speaking to a friend of mine in Montreal. She watches all her shows on her iPad in bed. Because she is bed ridden and has cancer. She has a landline connected to the internet. And they have changed her subscription to a Monthly Data Cap.
And it is now costing her over $150 a month just to have a internet connection
And we are going to follow them soon. As soon as they start buying each other out. They will be able to set price fixing and transfer unlimited to Data Caps. The hand writing is on the wall.
I agree with Chris. The content on youtube is nowhere as good as tv. However, I think youtube audience relates to youtube content creators better because they have a direct access to the creators themselves.