The head of Google"s YouTube division admitted this week that he is thinking about introducing some kind of paid subscription plans for the web streaming video service. Reuters reports that during the Reuters Media and Technology Summit on Thursday, YouTube leader Salar Kamangar said it was also considering charging a fee to watch some of the recently launched original content that YouTube currently offers.
Kamangar stated:
We don"t have anything to announce now. It is something that"s really important to a lot of our top existing content creators as well as ones that aren"t on YouTube today, so we"re taking very seriously and we"re thinking about it very carefully.
YouTube first announced plans to spend money to launch a whole series of YouTube channels with original content several months ago. Rumors are that YouTube and Google have spent over $100 million to help fund these shows.
In a separate Reuters article, Kamangar said that YouTube was also considering a plan to offer small cable TV networks a way to feature their programming on YouTube for a subscription fee. Many of these cable networks have issues with small audiences or not being included at all in some cable or satellite systems.
Kamangar said, "I see those kinds of networks becoming available in the future on the Web and I see those becoming available in an a la carte basis."
Source: Reuters