AfterDawn: News

YouTube to stream TV episodes, for a fee?

According to new reports, Google is negotiating with the media industry to stream individual TV episodes via YouTube, for a fee.

YouTube currently has TV shows available, for free, with advertisements, but it appears as if Google wants to expand the business model into flat-rate video playback with no commercials. The episodes will cost $1.99 USD each and will be available the day after they broadcast.



The sources say negotiations are still in preliminary stages but that both sides "seem optimistic," especially given YouTube's gigantic market share in the streaming video market.

Google may face a problem with the new model, however. Viewers will only get to stream the show, and not download it to their computers to keep forever. The pricing remains exactly the same though. The media execs cite studies that show that most people that download TV episodes only watch them once, but clearly there are people who want to keep it to watch it over and over. I mean, why else would they pay for it?

We will keep you updated.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 1 Dec 2009 16:15

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• 9 comments

• manrod

  Could potentially work in the US but no way will this take off in the U,K.
  
  For a start the price would be doubled and i'm sure we have enough channels on freeview that show repeats all day anyway. Oh, and then there's TvShack... :)

  1.12.2009 17:36 #1

• stuntman_

  we don't like to pay for things that we normally get for free this will fail. Ads are the better way to go

  1.12.2009 17:56 #2

• Shinraboy

  Oh please, not even in the U.S.A

  1.12.2009 18:43 #3

• Pop_Smith

  I don't see the point in paying for a digital (non-physical) rental. I would rather deal with 1-2 commercials and view it for free then pay $2 (or even $1) to have the commercials removed.
  
  EDITED by Pop_Smith: My post should make since now.

  1.12.2009 21:50 #4

• Hopium

  ^^ lol that is a great edit! but yeah i'd rather leech tv eps for free then and get them in hd then watch them with commercials or pay for them without.

  1.12.2009 23:48 #5

• Tristan_2

  This is a VERY BAD IDEA nuff said

  2.12.2009 01:03 #6

• KillerBug

  $2 an episode is insane; especialy if it looks as bad as other youtube videos. I can rent a DVD with 4-6 episodes for about $1...I know these are about a month newer; so it might have a chance if the rentals were like $0.50, and were for several days, not just a pay-per-view.

  2.12.2009 05:08 #7

• 20TONS

  I'm not paying for something that I watch for free. If I miss an episode the network usually has reruns when the series is on vacation.

  4.12.2009 20:22 #8

• bluetacky

  I hope these money grabbing barstools are reading this! Listen close ........WE WILL NOT PAY FOR YESTERDAYS RERUNS!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND???
  
  Terrestrial TV, Cable and Satellite are full of channels showing reruns of programs, some over 50 years old! FOR FREE!!!

  15.12.2009 19:19 #9