YouTube Is Beta-Testing The Ability For Creators To Publish Members-Only Videos

YouTube is reportedly building on its existing Memberships feature — which enables fans to pay support channels via $5 monthly subscriptions — in a way that will allow creators and publishers to offer member-only videos.

The video giant first announced a beta test for channel Memberships last June and then expanded the capability to all channels with at least 50,000 subscribers the following September. But the members-only video best is arriving in the wake of a test by Facebook, Digiday reports, whereby the social network is starting to sell subscriptions to select SVOD services directly within Facebook.

According to Digiday, YouTube’s members-only video test is aimed to help subscription services that have a sizable presence on YouTube not only promote these services, but also to enable members-only viewership on YouTube as well.

For instance, such videos would show up on YouTube, but a message would inform viewers that they are only viewable to channel members — with information about how to sign up, according to the YouTube Help Center

At the same time, YouTube is also expanding the potential pricing tiers for channel Memberships — which now range from 99 cents to $50 per month — so that publishers maintain consistent pricing for their subscription services on and off of YouTube, and also to take into account the platform’s 30% cut of all subscription revenues, per Digiday.

Facebook’s new subscription-purchasing feature, announced earlier this week, enables users to purchase subscriptions to four services — including BBC and ITV’s British TV app BritBox, CollegeHumor’s Dropout, car-focused MotorTrend On Demand, and foodie-forward Tastemade Plus — directly through Facebook.