Would you pay $9.99 per month for an ad-free YouTube?

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 21, 2015
Updated • Jan 4, 2018
Companies, Music and Video, Youtube
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Google revealed the much-anticipated subscription service YouTube Red official at an event in Los Angeles today.

YouTube Red, which will launch officially on October 28, will be a subscription-based service that provides ad-free videos on YouTube to subscribers.

Apart from that, members will get options to download videos for offline viewing and unlimited access to videos, whatever that means.

The ad-free experience is available cross-platform which means that members won't see advertisement on the desktop and mobile devices, provided that they are logged in to their account.YouTube Red mobile app

Google plans to push the service with exclusive content including original series featuring popular YouTube celebrities like PewDiePie and MatPat but also completely new series like "Fight of the Living Dead" or "A Trip to Unicorn Island".  These productions will launch early next year.

List of original series announced today:

  1. Scare PewDiePie: PewDiePie encounters "terrifying situations" inspired by his favorite video games.
  2. Sing It!: A new comedy show that makes fun of "reality singing competitions".
  3. Lazer Team: A feature-length action comedy.
  4. A Trip to Unicorn Island: A feature-length movie about the "life and journey of Lilly Singh".
  5. Untitled Joey Graceffa project: A new "reality adventure series".
  6. 360 Project with MatPat of Game Theory: Real-life science behind video games show.
  7. Single by 30: A "romantic drama series"
  8. Untitled College Humor project: A "dark and comedic look at the absurdity of Internet culture".
  9. Fight of the Living Dead: A "social experiment reality show".
  10. I Am Tobuscus: A satiric show about the life of a new-age celebrity.

Google's long-term plan is to establish YouTube as a direct competitor to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and others, and the first batch of series and movies it announced today are just "some of the original series and movies" it is debuting with YouTube Red.

The new YouTube Music app that Google announced today as well will also be ad-free for YouTube Red subscribers and available as an ad-supported version for non-subscribers.

YouTube Red in a nutshell

  1. Subscription costs $9.99 per month (iOS 12.99 per month).
  2. Subscribers get an ad-free experience on YouTube on the desktop and on mobiles.
  3. Subscribers do get ad-free access to the new YouTube Music app as well.
  4. Additional benefits include options to save videos and playlists for offline watching, access to original series, and background playback.

Closing Words

The main question is this: would you pay $9.99 per month to access YouTube ad-free. Is the exclusive content that you get another incentive that may persuade you to give it a try?

If you compare YouTube's offering to that of Netflix, you may come to the conclusion that it is not offering that much for the money right now especially since it will launch its first batch of original series next year and not on launch.

There are other questions that need to be answered. Will YouTube Red be geo-locked?

Now You: What's your first impression of YouTube Red?

Summary
Would you pay $9.99 per month for an ad-free YouTube?
Article Name
Would you pay $9.99 per month for an ad-free YouTube?
Description
YouTube Red is a subscription-based service that offers an ad-free experience on YouTube and access to original series and movies.
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Comments

  1. no said on November 14, 2015 at 5:40 am
    Reply

    google only want your money not your value

  2. No Thankyou said on November 14, 2015 at 5:35 am
    Reply

    Out of 2.2 billion YT users only 6% of those users used Google+ and its services.. Only 62000 users uploaded videos to YT on a weekly basis.. Pathetic Numbers.. Google are in trouble because they are very unpopular and i can tell you for a fact, YT will not be owned by Google for much longer and that can only be a good thing. Your a Fool if you pay $$ for Youtube red. When Ad blocking is free.

  3. An Insider said on November 14, 2015 at 5:21 am
    Reply

    There are a few good people inside Google who want you tube to return to what it was in early 2005, a great format that was destroyed by a CEO and henchmen who had no idea what Content creators wanted. google forced Change onto people and it backfired.
    You tube could be the best thing on the internet for users and content makers but while its owned by Google it will forever be something that continues to be changed and ruined by Google. Those calling the shots have no idea and the people inside google who do hve good intentions and great ideas are disregarded, for profits and a social media platform no one else wants.

  4. micheal said on November 14, 2015 at 5:01 am
    Reply

    Ad Block plus as well as other content, script and cookie blocking browser ad ons are free, why would you ever pay? google to not see ads when that option already exists for nothing. you would have to be 1 dumb fuck to pay for this BS

  5. no way hozay said on November 14, 2015 at 4:56 am
    Reply

    pay $120 per year to Google? lmfao.. who in their right mind would be interested in this crap!!!! oh that’s right Idiots who think they are youtube stars, probably will because after all wannabe’s will always be wanna be’s while the rest of us think they are a bunch of dickhead wanna be’s and their videos interest no one who matters.
    YT red will be a massive failure simply because i seriously doubt Americans can afford 10 bux a month and the rest of the world have already gone and told google to Go F**K themselves and shove YT Red up their arse.

  6. another scam from google said on November 14, 2015 at 4:46 am
    Reply

    I Wouldnt pay 1 cent per year for, youtube red its a crock of shit being forced onto those with nothing better to do but waste their time making youtube videos tnat suck and very few care about. “Google+” was Forced onto users and that is now dead, youtube red is another bad idea from google being forced onto users so google can make profits and offer nothing in return other than spam idiots use. Youtube are gradually going bankrupt, they are in dire straites and expect users to pay their profits and its not going to happen.
    Youtube was ruined as soon as google took over and forced all their garbage on people who never wanted it and have never used it.
    The reason why ill never create a youtube or google account is because its a google. i dont use it have no interest in it until google piss off and burn.

  7. youtube red, said on November 14, 2015 at 4:45 am
    Reply

    I Wouldnt pay 1 cent per year for, youtube red its a crock of shit being forced onto those with nothing better to do but waste their time making youtube videos tnat suck and very few care about. “Google+” was Forced onto users and that is now dead, youtube red is another bad idea from google being forced onto users so google can make profits and offer nothing in return other than spam idiots use. Youtube are gradually going bankrupt, they are in dire straites and expect users to pay their profits and its not going to happen.
    Youtube was ruined as soon as google took over and forced all their garbage on people who never wanted it and have never used it.
    The reason why ill never create a youtube or google account is because its a google. i dont use it have no interest in it until google piss off and burn.

  8. never said on November 11, 2015 at 10:48 am
    Reply

    I already have an ad fee experience online thanks to Ad Block plus
    Dont pay Google or anyone else for their spam. if you want to watch movies or tv shows online then dont pay for netflix, go to the #1 website for free .. primewire.ag….. all you do is choose click and watch, all in html5 HD format. Enjoy

  9. YOUTUBE red, No thanks! said on November 11, 2015 at 10:46 am
    Reply

    I already have an ad fee experience online thanks to Ad Block plus and a few other browser ad ons that remove or block content, java, cookies and scripts, all i see is text and thats the way i like it, and if i want to using Yarp i can delete everything on a website with a few mouse clicks. If anyone pays google for this youtube red garbage when Ad blockers are free here to stay and will eventually be the death of advertising and i love it., well they truely are FOOLS! Google getting desoperate because their pre roll video ads and other spam is being blocked by over 80% of internet users, that makes me laugh better still it makes my day.
    Dont pay Google or anyone else for their spam. if you want to watch movies or tv shows online then dont pay for netflix, goto the #1 website for free .. primewire.ag….. all you do is choose click and watch, all in html5 HD format. Enjoy

  10. Ray M said on October 26, 2015 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    Because Google makes changes that make using their sites more complicated rather than easier as well as arrogantly saying that you will not (never!) receive a response to any feedback you provide, I would not pay them for ad-free YouTube. In fact, for these very same reasons, I do not have any guilty feelings for using ad-blocking software.

    What might get me to change is if, instead of making a change that make things more complicated like the 2 screen login, they would actually respond to my complain saying that it is a stupid change; here is an option to undo this change. But, they have a long way to go to correct things.

  11. Dwight Stegall said on October 25, 2015 at 10:01 pm
    Reply

    I already get all of that free. They’ll have to come up with a better plan than that if they want my money.

  12. micheal said on October 25, 2015 at 11:10 am
    Reply

    i’d pay 10 dollar to adblock instead of this crap :D

  13. Saurabh said on October 24, 2015 at 6:55 pm
    Reply

    Nice move by Google but I doubt if it will be a hit or a big flop. I mean m getting the service for free for so many years and suddenly i have to pay for this just for an adfree experiance that to 10 bucks per month… i will rather go with the free with ads version instead first reason being .. some ads lead to quite good services (ps. not all haha) and second being as the article says “Additional benefits include options to save videos and playlists for offline watching, access to original series, and background playback.” all these features can be acesses free of cost so why pay??

  14. Peter said on October 24, 2015 at 5:17 pm
    Reply

    Never seen on ad on YouTube due to using an adblocker and can download video or just audio from the same using a third party tool and the exclusive content such as it currently stands would not interest me at all. That said you are also getting Google Play Music (on which I already store all my own personal music collection) which makes the offer a potentially more enticing one. Also its possible that YouTube could seek to block video playback if they detect you are using an adblocker as do some streaming sights here in the UK such as Channel 4 (though there is something or an arms race in this regard with those producing the adblock software) making switching to a ad free service a more compelling one.

  15. Three said on October 24, 2015 at 2:41 am
    Reply

    I would pay $10 a month if the paid videos were also included for streaming for free and ad-free.

    The current package as is makes Hulu and Netflix much better options.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on October 24, 2015 at 8:48 am
      Reply

      I agree, it is not a great deal. I suppose there will be enough interest though from users simply because of the size of YouTube’s audience.

  16. Nebulus said on October 23, 2015 at 10:37 am
    Reply

    “YouTube Red is available in the U.S. If you leave the U.S., you won’t be able to save videos offline, videos won’t play in the background, and you will see ads. Any videos that you’ve saved offline before leaving the U.S., will continue to be available offline for 30 days.” (source: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6307365?hl=en&rd=1 )

    So yeah, it sounds like it WILL be geo-locked.

  17. p3t3r said on October 23, 2015 at 7:13 am
    Reply

    I don’t even use any browser for watching videos on YT. I just open YT in Pale Moon, right-click on a link and select “open in SMPlayer”. So i get full control about all parameters (brightness, saturation, gamma, sound-equalizer…) and my visit doesn’t get recorded.

    They have ads on YT?

    1. PJ in FL said on October 27, 2015 at 5:57 pm
      Reply

      Thanks for the info!

      I’m not a fan of tracking, and I don’t see there is any content on YT that I can’t live without, so anything over about $0.50 / month is out of the question.

  18. Mr. Obvious said on October 23, 2015 at 3:46 am
    Reply

    It should have been called ‘YouTubeGreen’.

  19. Ken Saunders said on October 23, 2015 at 2:27 am
    Reply

    I would not pay but for different reasons than some people with the number one reason being that I wouldn’t pay Google to profile me (record all of my interests, viewing habits, etc) just so that they can sell that info to someone else. They profit twice you see.

    For people who don’t care about that, it’s a good deal since the service could end up being really great. Google has the money, clout, and connections (to Hollywood and studios), to get popular TV shows and blockbuster movies, and probably more so than Amazon and Netflix. Those two have original shows (like House of Cards, etc), Google could certainly do the same and get big Hollywood actors too.

    I have a Netflix subscription and I’m fairly happy with it as far as what I get for the money (7 something U.S. dollars, 3 devices I think). I’d definitely have a Hulu Plus one if they’d dump ads. I would be willing to pay more for that and have been since the service started but as far as I know, they haven’t listened to the consumer’s requests for that. It’s their loss.

  20. JohnMWhite said on October 22, 2015 at 10:30 pm
    Reply

    Whenever a company offers you the great opportunity (for a fee) to get rid of ads, they are simply reminding the consumer “yeah, our ads are really annoying, aren’t they?” Yeah, they are, and I’m not giving you money to stop annoying me. I understand that servers don’t grow on trees – somebody has to pay to run Youtube, and to create its content – but these schemes where you buy your way out of deliberate annoyances only really cause more annoyance by being such an artificial and quasi-coercive transaction. On this occasion it’s far too late; anyone who wants to block ads on Youtube already can with ease. Putting any popular Youtube star or series behind a paywall is just going to cause more annoyance among their fanbase. They’re basically charging ten bucks a month for nothing new. It’s monetisation with no clear purpose beyond making money, and of course that is going to be, dare I say it, annoying.

    1. Ann said on October 23, 2015 at 6:25 pm
      Reply

      I welcom YouTubeRed

      you know that “video killed the radio star.”
      And just like that paywall kills the youtube star.
      So I’m quite happy to get rid of those r….. YTstars :D

  21. Passerby said on October 22, 2015 at 4:58 pm
    Reply

    I don’t even use YouTube these days. Google has made the site worthless and junky.

    Back in late 2006 and early 2007 it was far better.

  22. YB said on October 22, 2015 at 3:57 pm
    Reply

    I would not! There is nothing enticing that would make me pay $9.99 a month.

  23. kalmly said on October 22, 2015 at 3:05 pm
    Reply

    No. No monthly fees anywhere.

    Certainly not for YT. . . Not for anything Google.

  24. Ben said on October 22, 2015 at 1:24 pm
    Reply

    No, because of two reasons:
    1) I do not want to have a “german account” for obvious reasons (they could change from IP detection to account country).
    2) I do not want google to be able to link my viewed videos to my name for the NSA database. (right now I use separate browsers for YT and normal surfing for example, so only the less reliable IP person mapping is possible).

    Oh, btw, I’m not paranoid – I just know what is technically possible (and thanks to Snowden you should now also know that).

    1. Peter said on October 24, 2015 at 5:07 pm
      Reply

      I have to say I do wonder what you are watching if you are worried about the NSA been in any way interested in your viewing habits!

    2. intelligencia said on October 24, 2015 at 3:52 am
      Reply

      @Ben
      I TOO use an alternate browser to access Youtube O-N-L-Y for the same reasons you cite!
      i

  25. Marco said on October 22, 2015 at 11:12 am
    Reply

    Certainly I would NOT pay even $1 for that! I already have YouTube ad-free with Adblock Plus.

  26. Anonymous said on October 22, 2015 at 9:53 am
    Reply

    Not after our illustrious government sanctioned Internet provider monopolies (i.e. Comcast, AT&T, etc.) decided to redefine “unlimited” data to whatever maximum cap they want to set it at and then charge you $10 per 50,000 GB block that you go over. You can’t even watch their own offerings for Internet streaming to your computers, iPhones, iPads and Kindles without paying $30 to $60 a month extra on a cable bill (and adding insult to injury, you’re even paying for the commercials every 10 minutes in the shows you stream in from Comcast and AT&T). So bye bye cloud and streaming services (Acronis and other hard drive backup companies, Amazon Prime Movies, Hulu , NetFlix, Nero, Cyberlink, Dropbox) until the FCC gets off their butts and makes the big Internet monopolies give us back our “unlimited” data plans. The consumer has no power….. it will take the aforementioned companies joining forces and resources to take on the FCC and congress.

  27. Mountainking said on October 22, 2015 at 8:50 am
    Reply

    $1/month is about right ….Would not pay more for this …

  28. beerpatzer said on October 22, 2015 at 8:38 am
    Reply

    Is this a joke? With adblock, this question is completely irrelevant… but even if somehow Youtube managed to outlaw adblockers, I still can’t see myself to pay more than $0.99 per month to see it..

  29. Graham said on October 22, 2015 at 6:37 am
    Reply

    “Much-anticipated?”

  30. IgHive said on October 22, 2015 at 5:48 am
    Reply

    Nope.

  31. IgHive said on October 22, 2015 at 5:47 am
    Reply

    No.

  32. Ren said on October 22, 2015 at 4:10 am
    Reply

    No thank you… I couldn’t possible any kind of content that YouTube could provide worth paying for..

  33. Sam said on October 22, 2015 at 3:50 am
    Reply

    No only no, but hell no

  34. Mike said on October 22, 2015 at 12:29 am
    Reply

    No, as I currently pay a fee of $0.00 per month for uBlock Origin.

  35. tecn0tarded said on October 21, 2015 at 11:50 pm
    Reply

    fck no…

  36. Nebulus said on October 21, 2015 at 10:55 pm
    Reply

    I would not pay that sum, because I’m not interested in YouTube’s offer. I don’t see ads on their site because I use a blocker and I don’t need to download clips too often (and when I do there are tools for it). So there is no point for me to pay them.

    That being said, I don’t think that the introduction of Red is a bad idea in itself, it just isn’t for me.

  37. Robert Headley said on October 21, 2015 at 10:47 pm
    Reply

    The big kicker here, is that it includes Google Play music. Youtube already has just about every song that exists, once you add Google Play Music on top of it, background play. At $9.99 It is basically gunning for Spotify premium. As a bonus, you get original series and no ads.

    1. funix said on October 23, 2015 at 12:24 pm
      Reply

      I am subscribed to Google Play Music already, so I am looking forward to getting the extra features with YT Red.
      As a stand-alone service I wouldn’t pay the 10€ per month.

    2. browngeek said on October 23, 2015 at 10:45 am
      Reply

      Exactly. It seems a lot of the other comments are missing this point. For US$10 a month you are not just getting YouTube Red, you are also getting Play Music.

  38. A Guy Who's Frustrated with YouTube's Current Shittiness said on October 21, 2015 at 9:35 pm
    Reply

    I’d be willing to pay for it, if only Google were to improve the service, rather than making it shittier day after day. Somehow they managed to make the HTML5 player even worse than the Flash one.

  39. Social Media Grandpa said on October 21, 2015 at 9:34 pm
    Reply

    I might have considered it a few years ago. Before Google continually and progressively made youtube worse and worse. Today. Youtube ain’t what it used to be.
    I miss the good old days when it was full of regular people doing regular videos about things they were passionate about. Then suddenly everyone had to get partner and monetized and there had to be presidential debates and sports and movies and professional content creators and blergh. And today the site is crippled for desktop users. Clearly designed for mobile. I’d rather donate or patreon users I like then pay to the evil googlemachine while they keep ruining the site.

  40. RustyH said on October 21, 2015 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    I would pay if it were accessible to the family. Giving my kids and wife access to my account doesn’t sound great and neither does $40 a month.

  41. Tom Hawack said on October 21, 2015 at 8:56 pm
    Reply

    Let’s be clear and straightforward : NO! 120USD a year? Never.
    Either I’ll limit myself to available videos if the ant-adblocker scheme becomes stronger than the adblocker, either I’ll carry on as I do now : no ads even within the videos. I have no YouTube account because the company is owned by Google (need to say I have no Google account as well) and moreover I very seldom visit YouTube, the site, and that most of the YouTube hosted videos I discover are embedded.
    I do have subscriptions elsewhere on the Web, I’m not at all a skinflint, but for videos, no.

  42. g said on October 21, 2015 at 8:44 pm
    Reply

    Nope, that’s a bit too much for me, especially given the fact that a lot of it will be wasted on stupid “original content” by some douchebags that I have no intention of caring about. I would probably pay half of that IF that money would go only to those channels that I actually watch (and some to youtube obviously). But I am not financing any such youtube so-called “stars”.

    What I really would like to see is something that would bill me per video watched at a rate that would correspond to the revenue an advertisement would have generated. That would be fair.

  43. not_black said on October 21, 2015 at 8:25 pm
    Reply

    YouTube is finished and bankrupt.

    1. Andrew said on October 21, 2015 at 10:21 pm
      Reply

      You don’t know much stuff do you?

      1. not_black said on October 22, 2015 at 2:00 pm
        Reply

        It’s a /g/ expression that is used to indicate that a company just went full retard.

      2. Robert Headley said on October 21, 2015 at 10:44 pm
        Reply

        ha ha ha

  44. Anonymous said on October 21, 2015 at 8:20 pm
    Reply

    No: thanks to Adblock Plus I can’t remember when I last saw an ad on YouTube.

  45. Yuliya said on October 21, 2015 at 8:07 pm
    Reply

    No, and lol. That original content sounds just awful. I wonder if the video download would also be allowed from desktop. On mobile they can hide the file from user and make it available offline only for the YouTube app. On desktop, once you’ve got the mp4 file, it’s yours.

    1. Velocity.Wave said on October 21, 2015 at 9:25 pm
      Reply

      Agreed the original content doesn’t sound all that great or enticing. So I would also not pay the 10 bucks per month.

      But interestingly…

      given Google’s (or should I now say Alphabet’s) access to funds, I bet they could fund some amazing hit new TV or movie productions (just like Netflix, Showcase, or HBO) to spice up that original content and transform youtube into a hybrid cross between Netflix/youtube.

      For example, I’d love to see some awesome written SciFi (of the quality of Battlestar Galactica, StarGate, etc…) and then you bet I would pay $10 per month (or possibly even more!)

    2. not_black said on October 21, 2015 at 8:31 pm
      Reply

      I believe they generate multiple MP4 few second nuggets for each video, so you’d still have to use some software to join them.

  46. Joe Mezzanini said on October 21, 2015 at 7:58 pm
    Reply

    No – I would not pay $10 a month for it.
    Not when I can get NetFlix or Hulu for that price

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