Google is preparing to launch a YouTube subscription service for viewers who don’t wish to see adverts.
YouTube is “fine-tuning the experience”, according to Robert Kyncl, the online video service’s head of content and business operations, speaking at the Code/Media conference in California.
Kyncl added that a subscription offering was important to YouTube because some viewers did not wish to sit through advertisements.
YouTube has been exploring a paid, advert-free version of its service for some time, launching a pilot program in 2013 that allowed individual content providers to charge consumers a subscription fee to access a particular video channel.
The company also launched its YouTube Music Key service in an invite-only beta form in November, which allows users to watch music videos without adverts. Subscribers are shown adverts on other types of videos, however.
The move would allow YouTube to compete with companies such as Netflix and represent a significant change for the site, whose free ad-supported videos attract more than one billion users a month.
YouTube’s @rkyncl stressing the importance of an audience relationship, as well as creating smart content #codemedia pic.twitter.com/UOZsgccOpY
— Re/code (@Recode) February 18, 2015
A total of 29 channels went live as part of the 2013 pilot, with partners including Sesame Street, UFC, National Geographic, PGA and Magnolia Pictures, charging $0.99 or more a month for paid channels that would sit alongside their free videos on YouTube.
Some of those companies later revealed that their paid channels had got off to a slow start.
“We had hoped to set the world on fire. We are not setting the world on fire right now,” said Adam Sutherland, National Geographic’s senior vice president of global strategy.
Kyncl also added that YouTube’s growth had accelerated despite competition from Facebook and others, and was eager to encourage its best content creators through schemes such as Google Preferred.
Launched last year, Google Preferred packages together the most popular YouTube channels and sells ads across them up front, in the same way that traditional TV ads are sold.
Kyncl was referring specifically to Music Key, YouTube’s music subscription service, which was launched in a beta version late last year ahead of a full launch.
“It is currently invitation only so I wouldn’t call it a launch just yet,” he said.
“We’ve invited our best users - it will launch in a few months to the public. It is a very important part of business. There are audiences who just don’t want to see ads. and in music - they want things like offline access. We want to deliver to fans and we want to deliver to creators a new revenue stream. This is an important initiative for us.”
- This article was extended on 20/2/2015 to clarify that Kyncl was referring specifically to Music Key
