YouTube to launch video subscription service

Google plans to offer a video subscription service on YouTube, which according to a newspaper report, the company may announce this week.

YouTube is "looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer," a YouTube spokesman said in an email on Monday.

There has been speculation previously that Google may launch a subscription service for premium content on YouTube, which is known mainly for advertisement-sponsored free content.

The new model to be offered by YouTube will apply to as many as 50 YouTube channels, and viewers will be charged $1.99 a month, reported The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the plan. The company has nothing to announce at this time, the YouTube spokesman said.

Google said in March that YouTube had over 1 billion unique monthly visitors, watching more than 6 billion hours of video each month on the video site.