Back in January of this year, I asked my YouTube subscribers whether they would pay to view certain channels. I did so as I had seen an article on the Verge which suggested YouTube had reached out to a handful of channels to test a subscription based model, costing between $1 and $5 per month. The article was rather vague and didn’t mention specific channels, nor did it suggest whether paying to view would remove the (increasingly annoying) pre-roll adverts that show up when a user opts to monetise their content.

I posted this video along with a topic over on HUPIT gaming and the response was pretty clear – people were not prepared to pay to watch their favourite channels.

YouTube Premium – Would You Pay To Watch?

Well, a few (ok… 9) months have passed and I had forgotten all about YouTube’s subscription model. That was until last night, when I saw this on my Twitter feed:

So it seems the paid channels feature did actually go live – but to who exactly? It seems I missed a rather obvious target audience for the subscription model. Reading about the YT Premium service in more detail, it transpires YouTube aren’t targeting the big content creators such as Machinima, as I suspected in my original video. Rather, they are going  for mainstream (as in – established before YouTube came along) producers such as Sesame Street and UFC.

That said, if your channel is already partnered and you have more than 10,000 subscribers then you are eligible to start charging your subs to watch your content. They will get a 14 day trial but if my (admittedly rather limited) market research is anything to go by, expect your viewer numbers to plummet if all you offer is a few quickscope montages and the occasional live commentary.