YouTubers.

[TigerTime]

I think Youtube recently or at some stage reduced revenue from videos so that's why sponsored videos started popping up and are now the sort of standard, along with youtube subscriptions etc. Shame.

40k viewers a few years ago would've earned you more than 40k now. The golf market on Youtube is now highly saturated to the point all the big names are coming in and taking over and the good, little guys will start to drop off.

 

[Burnsey]

Not in a million years would I pay seven quid to watch any one channel, who will release a few videos a week.

 

[MACM85]

Funny thing I read about Golfmates and their monthly subscription is that the exclusive videos will then be released on YT on their main channel. Begs the question why pay for a monthly fee to get a video a few days/weeks earlier?

 

[larmen]

Funny thing I read about Golfmates and their monthly subscription is that the exclusive videos will then be released on YT on their main channel. Begs the question why pay for a monthly fee to get a video a few days/weeks earlier?

isn't that mechanism already available on YouTube? Member content?

there are a couple of channels i follow (not golf) where members get it on Friday and I have to wait until Monday. No idea if members have to pay, or what the fee is.

 

[MACM85]

isn't that mechanism already available on YouTube? Member content?

there are a couple of channels i follow (not golf) where members get it on Friday and I have to wait until Monday. No idea if members have to pay, or what the fee is.

Yeh there is. However Golfmates are charging £7 away from YT so they get 100% of the money.

The defence to this is that they are losing money as a business and this is to survive. I get that YT is harder than what it is. However perhaps the business model needs to be looked at and scale back employees and operating costs before charing £7 a month to get a bit of content earlier

 

[Orikoru]

isn't that mechanism already available on YouTube? Member content?

there are a couple of channels i follow (not golf) where members get it on Friday and I have to wait until Monday. No idea if members have to pay, or what the fee is.

Yup - I noticed that Iona has started doing it.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

100%. Whenever I'm on my own at home, it's YouTube I stick on, and the fact it's free is the beauty of it really. So much so, I cancelled our TV licence since we were barely watching live TV at all. Saved myself £175.

Really not wishing to trigger a BBC licence fee debate but are you paying to get ad-free YouTube? I'm not - at £20/month for multiple users the Licence fee is cheaper and I watch and listen to a fair bit of live BBC plus lots of BBC Sounds and iPlayer content. Guess if you don't want to watch or listen to any BBC stuff at all then YouTube with or without a subscription is a good alternative.

Watching without a YouTube subscription the new ad regime (you used to be able to skip the ads pretty easily) is such that if I see something that looks interesting I'll often not bother as soon as I have to wait as ads spool through. The only YouTuber I watch more regularly is Finch - I'll usually stick with him through ads - but sometimes I'll just not bother and switch out of it.

 

[Orikoru]

Really not wishing to trigger a BBC licence fee debate but are you paying to get ad-free YouTube? I'm not - at £20/month for multiple users the Licence fee is cheaper and I watch and listen to a fair bit of live BBC plus lots of BBC Sounds and iPlayer content. Guess if you don't want to watch or listen to any BBC stuff at all then YouTube subscription is a good alternative.

Watching without a YouTube subscription the new ad regime (you used to be able to skip the ads pretty easily) is such that if I see something that looks interesting I'll often not bother as soon as I have to wait as ads spool through. The only YouTuber I watch more regularly is Finch - I'll usually stick with him through ads - but sometimes I'll just not bother and switch out of it.

No of course I'm not paying anything for YouTube, I just said the fact it's free is the beauty of it?? I'm not too bothered about adverts, you can skip them pretty quick on the iPad. On the TV they take a minute but I'm usually playing games on my phone or something at the same time so not fussed.

 

[Burnsey]

The whole YouTube thing is still new, but the people behind these channels who really think people want to pay to watch basic production of average courses are mental.

There's a good profit in merchandise and guest appearances on other channels, but no one is going to buy a hat designed by Liam from Bolton, with half a dozen followers.

 

[chico]

Funny thing I read about Golfmates and their monthly subscription is that the exclusive videos will then be released on YT on their main channel. Begs the question why pay for a monthly fee to get a video a few days/weeks earlier?

I think he said it would be edited down once it got to youtube, in essence the bare bones of the main video.

 

[Springveldt]

Really not wishing to trigger a BBC licence fee debate but are you paying to get ad-free YouTube? I'm not - at £20/month for multiple users the Licence fee is cheaper and I watch and listen to a fair bit of live BBC plus lots of BBC Sounds and iPlayer content. Guess if you don't want to watch or listen to any BBC stuff at all then YouTube with or without a subscription is a good alternative.

Watching without a YouTube subscription the new ad regime (you used to be able to skip the ads pretty easily) is such that if I see something that looks interesting I'll often not bother as soon as I have to wait as ads spool through. The only YouTuber I watch more regularly is Finch - I'll usually stick with him through ads - but sometimes I'll just not bother and switch out of it.

uBlock Origin still works on YouTube for the moment but Chrome are going to kill it soon. When they do I'll be moving to Firefox.

On the firestick I use an app called SmartTube and the dev is constantly fighting Google's attempts to stop the blocking of ads.

Thing is, I used to watch YouTube on the firestick using the official app and I didn't mind the amount of adverts they served up but it's ridiculous now. It got to the point that you would be watching nearly the same minutes of adverts than the content you wanted to watch. You would stick a 5 minute vid on and you would get a 1 minute pre-roll, then another 90 second ad after less than 2 minutes of content then another 1 minute ad at the end. I almost quit watching YouTube on the firestick because of it.

 

[Springveldt]

Not in a million years would I pay seven quid to watch any one channel, who will release a few videos a week.

£7 a month is basically the same as my Amazon Prime and Disney+ subscriptions. Why on earth would I pay that to watch 1 or 2 videos a week of someone playing average golf? If I'm honest I don't even like the Golf Mates channel that much, I find him a bit over the top and annoying. I can only watch him in small doses, I'm not even subscribed to the channel.

There isn't a single channel on YouTube that I'd pay £7 a month to watch, I watch them because they are free and to kill some time.

 

[Orikoru]

uBlock Origin still works on YouTube for the moment but Chrome are going to kill it soon. When they do I'll be moving to Firefox.

On the firestick I use an app called SmartTube and the dev is constantly fighting Google's attempts to stop the blocking of ads.

Thing is, I used to watch YouTube on the firestick using the official app and I didn't mind the amount of adverts they served up but it's ridiculous now. It got to the point that you would be watching nearly the same minutes of adverts than the content you wanted to watch. You would stick a 5 minute vid on and you would get a 1 minute pre-roll, then another 90 second ad after less than 2 minutes of content then another 1 minute ad at the end. I almost quit watching YouTube on the firestick because of it.

It is mad how much longer the ads are when you watch through a TV. I tend to prefer to watch on my iPad - partly because of that, and partly because the iPad allows to me to watch at 1.1 speed, which I find preferable - TV only allows 1.0 or 1.25.

 

[Crow]

On my PC most longer ads allow you to skip after 5 or 10 seconds.

 

[evemccc]

Really not wishing to trigger a BBC licence fee debate but are you paying to get ad-free YouTube? I'm not - at £20/month for multiple users the Licence fee is cheaper and I watch and listen to a fair bit of live BBC plus lots of BBC Sounds and iPlayer content. Guess if you don't want to watch or listen to any BBC stuff at all then YouTube with or without a subscription is a good alternative.

Watching without a YouTube subscription the new ad regime (you used to be able to skip the ads pretty easily) is such that if I see something that looks interesting I'll often not bother as soon as I have to wait as ads spool through. The only YouTuber I watch more regularly is Finch - I'll usually stick with him through ads - but sometimes I'll just not bother and switch out of it.

I don’t pay a BBC license fee

I do pay for YouTube Premium

I don’t watch too much golf on YouTube but I watch when something good is there.

There is a hell of a lot of good stuff on YouTube, if you like lots of sports and have a range of interests — lots of good documentarys, GCN, fitness, golf, mountaineering videos and good amateur ‘creators’ from things such as photography.
I don’t have time to watch live football (or choose not to) but like to keep up to date and there’s Prem League highlights, F1, highlights, cricket abd NFL all from official broadcasters. Current affairs, PMQs etc. are all there.

I couldn’t bare the ads, without Premium and I think YouTube without ads is very much worth it — I never liked the attempted brainwashing when I was a kid and watched ITV, and I would not want to spend any time watching the idiotic adverts that the woke corporates are increasingly churning out

Premium is more worth it for me than paying for Strava, Spotify, Netflix, BBC etc
In my opinion, of course

 

[Barking_Mad]

I just use NewPipe. It removes the YouTube adverts. Job done.

 

[4LEX]

I don’t pay a BBC license fee

I do pay for YouTube Premium

I don’t watch too much golf on YouTube but I watch when something good is there.

There is a hell of a lot of good stuff on YouTube, if you like lots of sports and have a range of interests — lots of good documentarys, GCN, fitness, golf, mountaineering videos and good amateur ‘creators’ from things such as photography.
I don’t have time to watch live football (or choose not to) but like to keep up to date and there’s Prem League highlights, F1, highlights, cricket abd NFL all from official broadcasters. Current affairs, PMQs etc. are all there.

I couldn’t bare the ads, without Premium and I think YouTube without ads is very much worth it — I never liked the attempted brainwashing when I was a kid and watched ITV, and I would not want to spend any time watching the idiotic adverts that the woke corporates are increasingly churning out

Premium is more worth it for me than paying for Strava, Spotify, Netflix, BBC etc
In my opinion, of course

I only watch YouTube on the TV's and it's impossible to watch without Premium. The best tenner I spend each month IMO.

 

[Crow]

I only watch YouTube on the TV's and it's impossible to watch without Premium. The best tenner I spend each month IMO.

I find YouTube so limited on the TV, have to watch it on the laptop.

 

[4LEX]

I find YouTube so limited on the TV, have to watch it on the laptop.

How come? Easier to search on laptop? I've got NowTV so voice search helps!

 

[Crow]

How come? Easier to search on laptop? I've got NowTV so voice search helps!

Yes, easier to search but also easier to go to a channel and see what else they've made, put it in date order from oldest to newest if you want to see old videos, or search a channel for anything in particular.
Also easier to comment and read comments, see the full video description etc.

Also easier to skip adverts, and my favourite is jumping forward or backward 5 seconds with the right or left arrow, makes watching golf much less tedious as you can cut the banal chat and jump ahead to the action. You might be able to do that on TV but I've not found a way.