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YouTube introduces paid subscription channels

Posted May. 08, 2013 02:43,   

한국어

YouTube, the world’s largest video sharing website offering free video clips, will officially introduce paid subscription channels this week. The IT community is interested in whether this would bring a change to the perception that the Internet means free contents.

In a spokesman’s statement, YouTube said Monday (local time), “We`re looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our partners with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer." The IT community interprets that the online music provider considers an option to charge a subscription fee to viewers to provide revenue for those who post videos. Currently, YouTube splits advertisement revenue from video clips at a certain ratio with those who post them.

The Financial Times quoted an anonymous internal source as saying that YouTube plans to introduce a subscription plan for some 50 out of its numerous channels. The newspaper reported Sunday the online provider plans to start charging a monthly subscription fee of at least 1.99 U.S. dollar. Spending several months to find a new stream of revenue aside from advertisements, YouTube is expected to announce the plan as early as this week, the newspaper said. The online video industry expects that popular videos such as Korean pop star Psy’s “Gentleman” will remain free but niche videos will be charged mostly.

The IT industry and patent-related lawyers see that YouTube is unlikely to charge copyrighted videos such as broadcast clips. The largest lawsuit related to copyrights issues is the one between YouTube and Viacom, the world’s largest media group. U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton in New York said on April 18 (local time) sided with Google in an appeal by Viacom for damages claims on copyrights violation against Google and its subsidiary YouTube. “There is no evidence that YouTube induced its users to submit infringing videos,” Judge Stanton said. “YouTube has no capability to control users’ copyrights violations and did not have an intention to ignore such act.”