Tired of YouTube adds popping in every video you watch? According to a report from Re/code, YouTube's completely ad-free subscription will likely launch in the last part of October.
For nearly a decade, YouTube has been giving free service to its users, but recently, content owners from the site have received an email from YouTube stating that “videos will no longer be available for public display or monetization in the United States," and they have to agree to this by Thursday, Oct. 22.
In the blast email, YouTube said, "To give fans more choice we will be launching a new ads-free version of YouTube, available to fans for a monthly fee. This service will create a new source of revenue over time that supplements your advertising revenue. That’s why an overwhelming majority of our partners — representing over 95% of YouTube watchtime — have asked for and signed up for this service."
"If you haven’t signed by that date, your videos will no longer be available for public display or monetization in the United States. That outcome would be a loss for YouTube, a loss for the thriving presence you’ve built on the platform, and above all, a loss for your fans," the company added.
YouTube further explains this move, saying, "We believe these new terms will greatly strengthen our partnership for the future. We went through a similar process three years ago when we began distributing and monetizing your content on mobile devices."
In a past report from Re/Code last year, during the Code/Mobile conference, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki discussed the company's plan of having a subscription service.
She said, “YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there are going to be cases where people are going to say, `I don’t want to see the ads, or I want to have a different experience.'"
At that time, she also hinted that they are thinking of "giving users options" of “either choose ads or pay a fee" for them.
Android Police reveals that the alleged subscription will most likely be at $10 per month. The feature entitles each subscriber with Google Play Music Unlimited, and, of course, video streaming without any paid advertisements before or during playtime.
The ad-free subscription will not affect other YouTube features such as movie rentals, paid channels and pay-per-view content. This new feature will begin in the U.S.; however, the news outlet notes that implementing this feature to other countries may take a longer time as the company would have to "work out any legal issues associated with rights management."
YouTube's completely ad-free subscription is rumored to be announced in Google's upcoming event on Sept. 29 in San Francisco.