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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Did YouTube just find some monetization help?

By | February 12, 2009, 12:59pm PST

YouTube will allow users to watch videos offline and even buy downloads for a small fee. 

Can you smell the monetization, which is YouTube’s biggest priority?

In a blog post, YouTube says:

Many video creators on YouTube want their work to be seen far and wide. They don’t mind sharing their work, provided that they get the proper credit. Using Creative Commons licenses, we’re giving our partners and community more choices to make that happen. Creative Commons licenses permit people to reuse downloaded content under certain conditions.

We’re also testing an option that gives video owners the ability to permit downloading of their videos from YouTube. Partners could choose to offer their video downloads for free or for a small fee paid through Google Checkout. Partners can set prices and decide which license they want to attach to the downloaded video files (for more info on the types of licenses, take a look here). 

YouTube also said that it has added a “My Purchases” tab. 

Now we’re not talking iTunes here and it’s unclear whether folks will seriously buy many videos. But the potential is there. Advertising will still be YouTube’s primary revenue model, but selling a few videos is a nice addition. In addition partners are likely to sign up just because of YouTube’s scale.

Download: YouTube’s video ID system: Is 75 percent accuracy good enough? Video ID system cost benefit and revenue calculators.

More reading:

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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Did YouTube just find some monetization help?
mikeluve23 25th Aug
I'm reading this in 2011 and I don't think it has been implemented. I think it's a shame cause I needed it for my courtier business model. Mybe they will come up with something soon. I hope.
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Pricing will matter
jred 13th Feb 2009
I know there's been several videos I would have
loved to download & keep, but not at >$2.

It will be interesting to see how they handle
other people uploading "official" videos
available directly from, say Universal...

I'm reading this in 2011 and I don't think it has been implemented. I think it's a shame cause I needed it for my courtier business model. Mybe they will come up with something soon. I hope.

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