YouTube

JUST SUB-POSING: Remember that YouTube subscription service that was bandied about a while back? Well, Susan Wojcicki, CEO of the Google-owned video behemoth, spoke about it, albeit vaguely, at the Code/Mobile conference yesterday. And even without a target date or much other detail, Wojcicki's remarks about a fee-based, ad-free YouTube got plenty of play in the business/geek-o-sphere. She noted that half of YouTube's 1 billion or so users are now streaming clips from their mobile devices (a much more fertile ground for subscriptions), and that a paid, ad-free version was one sort of "option" consumers were seeking. Currently YouTube allows individual channels to operate on a subscription basis. But an overall fee-based version, the revenue from which would apparently be carved up according to traffic generated, is another beast entirely. In the short term, would top content makers, who are now making bank from their piece of ad revenue, want to trade that arrangement for participating in the still-struggling sub model? Hard to say right now. One thing's for sure: If there's a frolicking-kitty-vids subscription, some folks in our office would probably peel for it. (10/28a)