Would you pay to avoid watching advertisements on YouTube?

The Google-owned video sharing service based in California has announced it is "fine-tuning" an ad-free experience aimed at competing with streaming services such as Netflix. The announcement was made at the Code/Media conference held this week in San Francisco by YouTube's Director of Content and Business Operations, Robert Kyncl, according to an article in The Guardian.

YouTube already hosts dozens of paid channels on its website, including content from PBS' Sesame Street and National Geographic. The new ad-free experience would likely work like those channels, with users paying an upfront cost then being able to watch whatever videos they choose without ads.

YouTube was launched in 2005 by three former employees of online payment service PayPal. The service began running ads on videos shortly thereafter, much to the consternation of outlets like Gizmodo. Google purchased the video-sharing service in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

Would you pay an upfront fee to get around those annoying YouTube ads? Or are you like me, patiently awaiting the "skip ad" button (or repeatedly tapping the mouse where the button will show up) on videos? Let us know in the comments below.

Here's some Nyan Cat to get you thinking. Ads included.

 

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