Those wishing they could watch YouTube videos without advertisements will be happy to hear about Google getting ready to launch a subscription service just for them.
Robert Kyncl, YouTube's head of content and business operations, discussed the move at the Code/Media conference in California, saying it is the video-sharing service's way of "fine-tuning the experience" for viewers, according to The Guardian.
The service would be the company's latest effort in providing a way for viewers to watch ads-free videos since its launch of a pilot program in 2013 that let individual content providers charge consumers $1 a month to watch content without ads.
With the new service, users would be able to watch their favorite videos ads-free for a fee, similar to Google's YouTube Music Key service, which lets users avoid ads while listening to and watch their favorite tracks, Mirror reported. Music Key is currently available in a beta form.
"YouTube has always been an ad-supported platform and we want to keep it that way. But users also want options that include not having ads," said a YouTube spokeswoman, who added that while the service is in its early stages of development, the company wants to add new subscription offerings for viewers.
"This would not only give users a choice but it would provide an additional revenue stream for our partners," she said.
The move would put YouTube in competition with Netflix, Amazon Prime and other services offering ad-free content.
YouTube already attracts more than a billion users a month with its ad-supported videos, The Guardian reported, so a service that lets viewers avoid ads presents an opportunity to make that user base even bigger.
