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.
Read more at The Guardian.
