As you know, the popular video site YouTube has been 100% free, much thanks to commercials. However, in a near future, you might have to pay to be able to see videos on the site.
According to CNET, Google’s Eric Schmidt says that Google is counting on introducing micropayments and subscriptions to access the videos, in a near feature. They are also collaborating with several movie companies, like Sony Pictures, to create special sections, with high quality material.
The reason for Google’s decision is that YouTube is a very expansive site to run; only the bandwidth bill is a small fortune, and I guess the ads doesn’t covers it anymore. Think about it, how often do you click on the ads that are on YouTube?
However, I suspect that Google takes this approach as a way for YouTube to continue to exist. Considering all the legal hassles around the content, it provides, this might be the only way to please all the copyright holders, which would have sued else way.
It will be very interesting to see what type of high quality material they are going to offer. Providing just some HD movie trailers and music videos will not be enough, since there are plenty of other video sites that provide that free of charge. My guess is that we will be able to see full-length movies and TV-series on YouTube, since that is something that other video sites cannot provide free, at least not in a legal way.
I also suspect that it will be different prices for different countries, since not all videos are available in all countries, which you might have noticed, if you have visited YouTube from outside the US.
It will be interesting to see if Google will manage to keep the high volume of visitors that YouTube has, and make a profit at the same time. Nevertheless, I guess that we will see more free video sites turning green in the future. Not just, because the owners hunger for money, but due to the legal aspects of the material on such sites.
Google has not revealed anything about their future price policy nor how much of the site that will be available to paying visitors only. Nevertheless, I think that we will be able to enjoy free videos on YouTube, even in the future, but to see the good ones; we will just have to pay for it.