YouTube To Offer Subscription Service This Week 189
jfruh writes "According to an email from a Google spokesman, YouTube will be offering a $1.99/month subscription service as early as this week. This service will 'bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content,' though there was no indication of what content will be offered through the service exactly. YouTube has offered rentals for specific videos before but this is the first time the service would go head-to-head with subscription services like Netflix."
guess they didn't listen to us (Score:5, Funny)
The Slashdot vote [slashdot.org] was pretty clear!
Of course not (Score:3)
Plus, the rules are different now.
It seems clear that the basic YouTube service will be free. The pay service will be for premium content. There seems to be less resistance to that.
Re:Of course not (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems clear that the basic YouTube service will be free. The pay service will be for premium content.
"Premium Content". I laugh every time I hear that phrase.
What exactly would this "Premium Content" be? What do they have in that crappy little window that is so wonderful and "Premium" that I will gladly pay them for it?
Re:Of course not (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Of course not (Score:5, Insightful)
Sport seems the thing that an awful lot of people are prepared to pay stupid money for.
Re: Of course not (Score:2)
The dumb teenie video blogs where some kid comlains about the hard life of twenty first century first world high school
Re: Of course not (Score:5, Funny)
Well, dude, high school really is unfair! Hey, kids studied the multiplication table in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! In high school, it's just assumed that you should be able to multiply without resorting to a verbal recitation of the table. The least they could do, is to post the table at the front of the room.
But, worse - they expect you to divide, add, subtract, AND multiply, all in the very same equation! It's INSANE, I tell you! Stupid formulas, new rules, geometry, trig, calc - it just goes on and on, with no end in sight!
Re:Of course not (Score:5, Funny)
Extended editions of cat videos.
Re:Of course not (Score:5, Informative)
What exactly would this "Premium Content" be?
Videos that are more expensive to produce than advertisers alone are willing to pay for.
ERBH (Score:3)
Epic Rap Battles of History.
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What exactly would this "Premium Content" be?
Cat videos. Funny cat videos. Kitten videos. Lolcat videos.
Other than that, I got nothin'.
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Quite possibly nothing.
You aren't the whole market.
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What exactly would this "Premium Content" be? What do they have in that crappy little window that is so wonderful and "Premium" that I will gladly pay them for it?
I'd guess stuff owned by movie and TV studios that have competitive reasons for not wanting to be on Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime, and aren't aligned with a cable/ISP company that is developing its own streaming system.
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So long as the subscription is actually monthly and doesn't require any long term commitment, I wouldn't have a problem paying if I noticed something that I really wanted to see. It might even provide motivation for better content.
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If there are ads, then what's the point of it? I can already hook youtube up to a TV, I'm not sure what the point of a subscription rate is if I'm going to have to see ads anways.
OTOH, at $2 a month, at least it isn't as expensive as Hulu that makes you watch ads on most stuff and holds back programming until it's not as useful to watch anymore.
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Ads (Score:5, Insightful)
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in-fucking-deed....
Especially since they seem to have no tailoring to my interest so I get tons of ads for cruises, crappy insurance and other completely uninteresting things.
It has gotten annoying enough in some cases to make me download the clips in bulk via scripting instead of using the website... sigh
Untargeted (Score:2)
Especially since they seem to have no tailoring to my interest
You're right that YouTube video ads tend to be only vaguely targeted, even though I haven't disabled Google's various tracking mechanisms. Google has done a lot better job targeting its text ads. I gather from an ad that has been shown to me a few times about the benefits of advertising your business with video that perhaps Google is hurting for video advertisers.
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They are in Norway.
In an evening of watching VOD starcraft matches I would get the same 2-3 video ads on every video change.
It is not that the ads are THAT annoying, it is that you've already seen em 8-10 times already in a single day...
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Google is notoriously hard to contact (Score:2)
Have you tried calling them or emailing them?
YouTube's parent company Google is notoriously hard to contact through e-mail or phone. They want things to go through a public forum.
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What I do is when my show starts, I just take click toward the end of the show, after the last commercial but before the end. (Don't let it hit the very end.)
A commercial will play, then put I'll it back at the beginning. Enjoy a commercial free show from that point forward.
Hitting reload resets and you have to start over. I use Opera but I imagine it works with any browser.
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I guess this no longer works. I should have checked before I posted.
Re:Ads (Score:4, Informative)
I'd definitely pay $2/month to remove the damn ads
Or just use AdBlock.
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This. I wondered why people were complaining about ads before YouTube videos as I never got them. Adblock just transparently makes them disappear. Same goes for ads in Facebook, Google search results, etc...
Re:Ads (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ads (Score:4)
Because if everyone started using Adblock these websites would disappear or force people into a subscription. A large portion of their operating costs are supported by the advertisements that Adblock will block.
If they can't exist without ads I can't block, then I don't care if they can exist. I simply refuse to give up my brain to advertising. I need that space for minecraft and Doctor Who.
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Please, someone mod parent up. I can't believe people are so selfish: These sites give you content in exange for ads, if you don't like the deal just don't go there.
I'd happily accept ads, providing that I knew they weren't going to infect my machine with malware of some kind. So until that happens, no ads. Perhaps said companies should get their act in order, and fix the "we're going to let shady companies advertise on our networks" problem. There's nothing selfish in that, it's prevention and removal of a headache. In the very worst cases with that malware mentioned above, it requires a nuking of the OS. I have no desire to deal with that anymore.
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if you don't like the deal just don't go there.
Which is obviously much more beneficial for them, because that way they get less ad impressions and less word of mouth.
These sites give you content in exange for ads
No they don't, they give advertisers potential sales in exchange for money. You are the product being sold to advertisers. There is no burden of responsibility on the user's part to purchase anything from the advertisers, or to look at the ads. It's the burden of responsibility of the site to give you a compelling reason to be their product. Bombarding the user with easily circumvented malw
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Maybe your copy isn't up to date? I use AdBlock at work, along with Ghostery and a few other extensions, and I...err...a coworker that has the same extensions...never sees an ad on YouTube. And at home, I use a variation on AdBlock in Safari, along with a hosts file I grabbed somewhere ages ago, and they effectively block everything as well.
The hosts file I have also successfully blocks the ads on Hulu. The issue with that, however, is that Hulu can tell when it's serving up ads, and if it doesn't serve up
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i remeber that using the experimental 64 bit flash plugin used to stop most hulu ads from playing when i watched hulu on ubuntu but maybe it was just me idk
Re:Ads (Score:5, Informative)
Use the Firefox version. The Chrome version lacks several important features - the most significant one being that the Firefox version actually stops the blocked content from being downloaded, while the Chrome one only stops it from being displayed, due to Chrome not supporting that level of control in an extension. I would not be surprised if blocking video ads was also beyond the ability of the Chrome version.
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Re:Ads (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, youtube has nothing that anyone wants to watch. They ought to just shut it down already, its just a wasteland with no viable content at all.....
Re:Ads (Score:5, Insightful)
I think he meant it has nothing that anybody wants to pay to watch. It's popular right now because it's free, but cat videos may not pay the hosting service by themselves.
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Yeah, youtube has nothing that anyone wants to watch. They ought to just shut it down already, its just a wasteland with no viable content at all.....
Can't tell if troll, sarcastic or informative....
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A large part of the problem with those services is that they suck. Netflix's streaming library is still tiny compared with it's disc library, but the cost is the same. It blew my mind that people weren't going to be outraged by the change to online only for the same price as the disc service.
Similarly for Hulu, you have to watch ads either way, subscription gets you the ability to watch some of it on your TV, and programs may well still be delayed, unless you're a subscriber to one of the partner TV provide
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Can AdBlock block the ads embedded in the video? I don't recall that function.
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and I dont recall ads embedded in video on Youtube
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You should pay more attention. They're there.
-dZ.
Re:Ads (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd definitely pay $2/month to remove the damn ads. Same goes for Hulu - why don't they have this option?
It will go the same way as cable. First you pay $2/month to remove the ads. Then you pay $4,$8,$16 and then they put the ads back in as well.
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It will go the same way as cable.
No. The difference is that digital streaming like YouTube or Netflix must compete. Cable systems own their regions and milk their subscribers. Streaming systems will never be able to jack rates like cable because they're fungible.
Had to actually look that one up [merriam-webster.com], never ran across it before. Thanks for broadening my vocabulary! ;o)
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It will go the same way as cable.
No. The difference is that digital streaming like YouTube or Netflix must compete. Cable systems own their regions and milk their subscribers. Streaming systems will never be able to jack rates like cable because they're fungible.
Even worse than that: the monthly caps that cable systems place on subscribers will primarily hit streaming companies like Netflix, especially as HD streaming becomes more common. On the other hand, a streaming service that is partnered with your cable/ISP will not count toward your cap. Neat, huh?
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Youtube has advertising? Dang - I didn't know that. I just opened my Youtube home page. Black Mambas, funniest racist commercial, DDG gunnery exercise, stupid motorcycle riders, Bagram air crash, Arab Olympics fail, Thanatamersis, Nixie Pixel, Hippo destroys lion pride - - - Tons of stuff, but no advertisements. Maybe advertisers don't support Netgear routers that have been flashed or something? Here, have a nice Tomato, prepared by Toastman!
Obligatory (Score:5, Interesting)
You're just one step closer to the dystopian future of the all-despising baby skull: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2490 [smbc-comics.com]
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Interestingly some platforms don't support ads, such as my Panasonic smart TV. It never displays any advertising at all, and I doubt it will ever be "fixed".
Someone needs to come up with a working ad-blocker for the Android YouTube app.
Re:Ads (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd pay $2/mo to get rid of all the "featured" panels on the interface and all the juvenile crap from teenage morons that cater to a massive mouth-breathing audience of children (I keep seeing shit from guys named Fred and Tobuscus and Pewdiepie and other crap all the time). For that matter, dump all the "boobs and brain-dead response videos" crap and I'll definitely pay $2/mo for what's left.
I primarily watch stuff like lectures from Stanford, hardware demos, high end hardware builds being benchmarked, etc. Yet, what do they keep spamming me with? Fucking idiot teenagers spending 20 minutes showing you how to do your makeup or spending ten minutes showing you everything they just bought at the mall (seriously, this is apparently a whole genre of videos now).
How can a company with such a claim to targeted advertising now get this shit right?
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I'm pretty sure they've got it right. Those things would likely make you less unfriendly and a bit more socially acceptable.
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I don't get why Hulu Plus still has ads for paying members, but then cable TV and others have ads too. Originally, they didn't! Lame. I doubt YouTube will remove ads for paid subscribers. :P
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I've never seen an advertisement on Youtube.
me neither.
a friend of mine sees them all the time, on the same network. I haven't consciously even put up a block for them and you would think they would have an antiblocking system in place..
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Great Content (Score:2)
This service will 'bring even more great content to YouTube
That made me laugh. "Great content on Youtube" is today's latest oxymoron.
Re:Great Content (Score:5, Informative)
If you know where to look, there's lots of great content on YouTube. Personally, I enjoy watching Matt Chat [youtube.com], Lazy Game Reviews [youtube.com], and Classic Game Room HD [youtube.com], more than anything on TV. If you're a smart person who wants to share your passion with the world, YouTube is a much better place to do that than any television network.
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If you know where to look, there's lots of great content on YouTube. Personally, I enjoy watching Matt Chat [youtube.com], Lazy Game Reviews [youtube.com], and Classic Game Room HD [youtube.com], more than anything on TV.
Yes, I suppose this is true, if you have a very loose definition of "great".
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True, you're not going to see Ken Burns or Neil DeGrasse Tyson level quality out of Youtube. But you can easily meet or exceed the quality of whatever is on basic cable at the moment 90% of the time. That may not be "great", but it's nothing to sneeze at either.
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson is all over youtube https://www.youtube.com/results?filters=long&search_query=neil+degrasse+tyson&lclk=long [youtube.com]
And there is a lot more interesting stuff than him https://www.youtube.com/user/setiinstitute [youtube.com]
YouTube currently has more new good stuff to watch each day than I have time to look at. You should try using the search function.
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There are some awesome tutorials up there. Also sometimes I just randomly choose a playlist and let it run in the background for stumbling across good music. Currently listening to the fresh style of Xtortion Audio ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ngnsC8w4E [youtube.com]
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Youtube could potentially dominate all other video (Score:5, Interesting)
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Oh that's a good idea. Your favourite shows could load themselves automatically when they are released each week, so you come home from work and whatever is ready is all set to go without any interaction from yourself. Pick whatever you want to watch or leave it for later, very convenient.
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My ISP (Virgin Media) actually copes better with 1080p because they cache it inside their network. 720p often stutters because it is uncached. Unfortunately some devices don't let you select 1080p over 720p, such as my phone. It makes sense because the phone's screen is "only" 720p, but they didn't count on Virgin being crap.
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It's kind of interesting because the industry has already come up with a solution for this. They allow streaming to mobile devices, but first got to log in with your cable/sat provider's info to verify you subscribe to their service. I know a couple years ago my Dad had a package with everything including all the HBO's. I signed in my iPad under his account and was able to watch the first season of Games of Thrones on my iPad through HBO GO.
Truth is there is starting become a blur between content provide
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Except that they haven't proven that with their NorthWest servers at all. And yes, it is their servers that are having issues.
Cite?
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youtube.com from a northwest state
That's not very informative :-)
There are many, many things that could be causing problems for you. Your ISP's configuration, including possibly-overloaded caching servers, DNS misconfiguration directing your requests to the wrong places, overloaded ISPGoogle peering links, overloaded ISP backbone links... and many more.
Youtube streaming sucks. (Score:5, Informative)
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Blacklist your ISP's local mirrors.
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Mind elaborating on this and how it relates to youtube vids?
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Netflix and others use what's called a CDN, content delivery network. they have servers inside the ISP's networks with the content. you never actually stream from the internet.
YouTube is all inside Google's infrastructure so anything you stream from youtube you use your ISP's internet backbone. I think Amazon is the same way since its glitchy for me as well.
this is why i stream all my content from Netflix and itunes. they use a CDN and i get the best quality and performance.
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YouTube is all inside Google's infrastructure so anything you stream from youtube you use your ISP's internet backbone.
Google also has caching servers forward-deployed with the major ISPs. Also, Google peers directly with many ISPs, so data doesn't flow over the ISP's connection to the backbone.
http://blogs.broughturner.com/2009/04/googles-peering-and-caching-strategy.html
Re:Youtube streaming sucks. (Score:5, Informative)
How to stop ISPs sucking at Youtube [mitchribar.com]
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That nonsense has been debunked numerous times. Reddit latched on to the "workaround" [reddit.com], but if you actually read the full thread -- not skim it -- you will find intelligent network-savvy folks commenting on its idiocy. The person who came up with this "workaround" doesn't understand things like DNS load balancing, anycast, and other methodologies Youtube deploys (including back-end stuff) to accomplish load balancing. You might also be surprised to know Youtube's Flash applet (not sure about the HTML 5 st
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Try different DNS settings (Score:3, Informative)
A common trick used by content providers is to have the same DNS entry resolve to different IP addresses in different parts of the internet so that you'll get content from a sever close to you.
This doesn't seem to be working out for you.
I suggest trying a different DNS provider and see what happens. Try using google's own DNS if you're not (set your DNS to 8.8.8.8) or, if you are, try using the ISPs.
You'll probably need to flush your DNS in the operating system and probably restart your browser to clear it
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I'm not using my ISP's dns servers (Verizon). I'm using these DNS servers:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
These are google's servers, so unless Verizon has some tricks around them, I don't think DNS is the issue.
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the psychology of it all (Score:3)
Paying even a trivial fee like $1.99/month will lead users to claim higher levels of satisfaction with the service which is good for Google. It's been shown empirically over and over that we come to value those things which we pay for more than those which are free.
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CC.
Re:Youtube streaming sucks. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's probably your ISP's fault. I know my ISP, Virgin Media, breaks Youtube.
What tends to happen is that the ISP notices a lot of traffic coming from YouTube. So they call up Google and get some caching servers installed inside their network just to handle YouTube video. All YouTube traffic is intercepted and redirected to these caches and for about five minutes all is well. Then YouTube traffic doubles in a year but the ISP makes no effort to upgrade its caches and everything grinds to a halt.
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I too am on Virgin Media, but I don't use YouTube enough to make this workaround worth the hassle.
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Wrong (Score:5, Informative)
This seemed fishy considering the market, so I did some poking around and, surprise!: not only does the summary totally mangle the facts of the rumor - Youtube is supposedly going to start offering premium CHANNELS for 1.99/month EACH, not a Hulu or Netflix-type broad subscription - but it's only a rumor that google has neither confirmed nor denied.
http://consumerist.com/2013/05/06/report-youtube-introducing-paid-subscription-channels-soon/ [consumerist.com]
Good job.
Next stop, Utopia (Score:2)
how much you want to bet... (Score:2)
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Well, if you insist on being cynical isn't it just as likely that youtube will simultaneously roll out vastly improved software to scan for and remove copyrighted movies. But only if you submit your copyrighted movie for their analysis (and rental) first.
I mean, that's if you insist on being as cynical as possible.
I've seen 90 minute ads in movie theaters (Score:2)
And the worst is when the video does play, many now have LONG ads within them. I'm talking like 2 and a half minutes.
And I went to the movie theater in 1989 and saw a 90-minute ad for the NES [wikipedia.org].
But seriously, any video ad on YouTube that is longer than 30 seconds should have "click to skip" after the first 5 seconds.
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