Washington, Jan 31: Google's video sharing and streaming service, YouTube is reportedly mulling to charge people for watching videos on the website.
Although the subscription model is yet to be decided by the company, it is being believed that the company will follow different models across various channels for revenue earnings. For instance, for periodicals, there can be a monthly subscription model where in users will have to pay up a monthly or even a yearly fee for accessing content.
Also possible is the 'pay per view' model where in users can see the content they like and pay only if they like it without having to pay up an upfront fee.
The subscription model is likely to be adopted for online service to begin things with but will eventually be made available for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
YouTube today is a popular source of entertainment for mobile devices and Google can certainly not overlook this opportunity especially since Android is deeply integrated with YouTube.
If all goes well by the subscriptions service can be expected to be up and running within this year itself. YouTtube has reportedly reached out to a small group of channel producers and asked them to submit applications to create channels that users would have to pay to access.
