YouTube is planning to launch a paid subscription model that will be ad-free.

YouPay

This would mark a major shift for the video streaming giant, which currently runs pre-roll ads to its 1 billion monthly users.

The move is being spearheaded by Susan Wojcicki, the Google senior vice president who took over YouTube business in February.

“There are going to be cases where people are going to say ‘I don’t want to see the ads or I want to have a different kind of experience’,” she explained at the the recent Code/Mobile technology conference.

Wojcicki did not indicate when the subscription model would roll out, or how much it would cost.

Pay to play

YouTube has been tinkering with paid options as it looks to leverage capital from its massive user base.

In 2013 YouTube allowed content creators to charge viewers a subscription fee to access premium channels, though this did not include an ad-free option.

If YouTube can lure more customers willing to part with some cash to skip commercials, it might snatch some eyeballs away from video streaming rivals Netflix and Hulu. 

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