YouTube About to Find Out If A La Carte Works
By: Todd Spangler
Multichannel News
Jan 30 2013 - 11:04am
http://www.multichannel.com/blogs/bit-rate/youtube-about-find-out-if-la-carte-works
YouTube is aiming to co-opt the dual revenue stream of cable TV, hoping
to launch paid access to two dozen or so "channels" for somewhere
between $1 and $5 per month as soon as Q2 of this year, AdAge reported.
No surprise there: The company's execs have already spoken about their
interest in enabling this, on multiple occasions. The Google-owned
property also has been considering offering paid access to live events.
The real surprise? That YouTube -- which has spent years teaching people
that video on the Internet is free -- seems to think it can make any
kind of real money here.
The devil is in the details, of course: What's actually going to be
available and how much will it cost? I'd be astounded if YouTube were
able to acquire a substantial number of paying customers by offering a
la carte access to any of its current lineup of original channels.
Maybe there's something else those guys have up their sleeves, but I
can't see anybody paying a buck or two per month for the stuff you can
get on, say, The Comedy Shaq Network, The Pet Collective or even The
Spangler Effect (no relation! And no offense, Steve). I like The Onion,
but will anyone pay to watch kinda-sorta-funny parodies like America's
sexiest hula-hooper?
Consider that Netflix and Hulu Plus cost $8 per month, for a huge amount
of name-brand TV and movie content. Will eight bucks get you as much
entertainment bang for your buck on YouTube?
I guess the economics of a YouTube channel could, in theory, work with
just 10,000 or 20,000 paying monthly subs -- but you need a fanatical
fan base (think Glenn Beck). And guys, you ain't gonna get Game of
Thrones or Homeland for that kind of scratch.
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