YouTube preparing to launch paid subscription for ad-free viewing

YouTube is planning to introduce a paid monthly subscription that would allow customers to watch videos without ads, according to an email that the company recently sent to video creators.

The Google-owned video platform will share revenue from subscriptions with YouTube partners, as the company refers to video makers. In the email, YouTube pitched the paid offering as a "new source of revenue that will supplement your fast growing advertising revenue." The company suggested that it will launch subscriptions later this year.

Citing "sources familiar with the matter," The Verge reports that YouTube will charge "around $10 a month" for the subscription. In addition to ad-free viewing, YouTube's paid plan will reportedly allow subscribers to store videos on mobile devices for offline playback. Last November, the company launched an invite-only beta of YouTube Music Key, which offers ad-free streaming of music and music videos.

YouTube will give 55 percent of subscription revenue to groups of partners, according to The Verge, with individual partners receiving cuts of that total depending on their channel's viewership. Sources told The Verge that YouTube will require creators to participate in the subscription plan, lest all their videos be set to private. This could upset video makers, who are already feeling the squeeze from companies like Nintendo that are taking their own cut of ad revenue on videos produced by YouTubers.