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YouTube Will Offer Subscription Service for Avoiding Ads

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Ads used to be nonexistent on YouTube. Then they became occasional nuisances (that the viewer could often skip). Now they're regular occurrences, and a hassle for people who watch a lot of video.

But are they enough of a hassle that people will pay to avoid them?

At the Code/Media conference that concluded yesterday in Dana Point, California, YouTube head of content and business operations Robert Kyncl announced that his company will launch a subscription service that lets people go ad-free. The offering is currently undergoing fine-tuning and should launch in the next few months. Kyncl didn't announce what the price will be.

This isn't the first time YouTube has talked about this type of subscription offering. In fact, at the 2014 Code/Mobile conference, the company's CEO suggested that this type of subscription plan might be coming. A year later, it's soon to be a reality.

According to a Reuters report, YouTube first launched a pilot program for this type of service in May 2013 where creators could charge a subscription fee for a video channel.

That wasn't the only news coming out of Kyncl's session. He also announced that YouTube's top creators will get more support, TechCrunch reports. Kyncl didn't suggest what form that support will take, but it's likely to mean letting them keep a bigger share of the ad revenue they bring in as YouTube fights to keep its most popular creators from straying to competitors.

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