Earlier this month it was revealed that Google might be planning on starting the Youtube paid subscription model. But as it turn out even with paid subscriptions have been launched for 10 countries including US and UK, India has not been made a part of the same.
According to reports commenting on the availability of the service for India, David Macdonald, head of YouTube content operations, Asia Pacific said “We have no plans to bring the subscription service in India as the market is still evolving,”.
To start with Youtube’s paid channels are being made available for subscriptions and users would be able to subscribe to them at a low price of $0.99 or Rs 55 as the starting price for countries where the subscriptions service has been made available. There are 54 channels that have been added to the subscription list. Users in India can access the trailers on these channels but paid content is out of reach.
But the company is not overlooking the whole proposition as it has plans for releasing the service in India but when will it be launched is still a big question.
The availability of on demand videos will allows Youtube to offer specific content to users through PC, mobile phone and tablets. The service is new and available in limited markets but will pose a big challenge for services like BigFlix wherever it is launched largely due to the popularity of Youtube, which is the largest video site in the world.