Google announced Monday that it is looking into bringing a subscription service to YouTube that would have users pay a small fee to watch videos without ads.
The video-sharing site makes most of its revenue from advertisements, even though it provides most of its services for free, according to CNN Money. The move would put YouTube in competition with other subscription video services like Netflix and Hulu, as well as music subscription services like Pandora and Spotify.
"YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there's going to be a point where people don't want to see ads," Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, said at a conference sponsored by ReCode.
The offer would also be the first time that YouTube has provided a paid-subscription option that didn't have ads, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some content providers are currently allowed to create their own subscription-based channels where they can charge viewers a fee to watch their videos.
Wojcicki said there are more people right now using apps on their phones to watch videos, and a lot of these apps let users choose to either watch ads or pay to skip them.
"That's actually a pretty interesting model because it's giving users choice," she said. "We're thinking about how to give users options."
The CEO didn't say when YouTube would make the subscription service available or what the price of the service would be, CNN Money reported.
The idea of a paid subscription service for ad-free videos comes at a time when YouTube is expected to release a music subscription service, which a person familiar with the situation said would provide music for free, with ads, The Wall Street Journal reported. The person added that a service will come with a version that won't feature ads, and another source said the company hopes the music service will lead to other content subscriptions.
Wojcicki said she is "optimistic about seeing it soon," but she wouldn't say if YouTube would release the service this year.
