When it comes to ad-free music, Google’s YouTube sort of has users covered with YouTube Music Key. Basically this allows viewers to subscribe and watch music videos without ads as well as save them for offline watching later on. However when it comes to ad-free videos in general, YouTube doesn’t really have the answer for that yet.
Now if you thought it was as simple as applying the concept of YouTube Music Key to the idea, think again. According to a report from The Information (subscription required; via Engadget), it seems that YouTube is having a hard time convincing content creators to hop on board with the idea.
Apparently in a bid to try to get more users on board, YouTube has reportedly threatened to set certain channels to private so that these videos won’t get listed during search, thus forcing these video creators to give in to their demand. It sounds a bit heavy handed but apparently YouTube tried this with indie musicians last year.
That being said, while YouTube could possibly strong-arm these independent creators, they might have a hard time dealing with content provided by TV networks, such as Hulu which already requires a subscription, so in essence YouTube would be stepping on some big toes here. In any case the gist of it is that if you wanted an ad-free YouTube, you probably will have to wait.