YouTube, the video website owned by Google Inc, plans to offer paid subscriptions to some of the content on its site later this year, according to a media report.<\/p>\n
YouTube has reached out to several video producers, asking them to submit applications to create for-pay “channels,” according to a report in AdAge on Tuesday that cited anonymous sources.<\/p>\n
The first such channels could be available to consumers by the second quarter for between $1 a month and $5 a month, AdAge reported.<\/p>\n
YouTube, the world’s No. 1 video website, has been moving to add professional-grade video programs to the vast archive of amateur, home-shot videos that made the site popular. The current crop of such channels is available to consumers for free and supported by advertising that appears alongside the videos.<\/p>\n
YouTube has hinted in the past that it was considering offering subscription-based paid content. YouTube boss Salar Kamangar told Reuters in June that there was strong demand among certain YouTube video producers, such as video game networks, to offer fee-based programs.<\/p>\n
“They have such a big audiences that they can start to segment their audiences into those that are willing to pay a higher amount” for things like new gaming tricks, Kamangar said at the time.<\/p>\n
He also said that cable channels with small audiences could potentially be offered to consumers through YouTube on an “a la carte” basis.<\/p>\n
YouTube was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
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