HN Explorer

We need a simple ad free youtube alternative

7 points by fatihdonmez ↗ HN
I'm just annoyed with new youtube video ads with delayed skip button. MAybe they're just trying to multiply their revenue by increasing ad impression by doing it mandatory but it's just suck as an end user. Maybe an early youtube(before google era) clone can succeed as a simple elegant video site.

21 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 55.7 ms ] thread
zachlatta
I don't think you understand how difficult it is to create and maintain a video streaming website.
fatihdonmez
Of course I know the difficulties but I'm considering it as an entrepreneur. Yeap challenge is big but risk/reward ratio. It can be opportunity for new comers. Just brain storming man.
mtgx
Couldn't we make an open source alternative to Bittorent Live and make it work in the browser? That would cover a lot of of the streaming costs.
zachlatta
I'm sure it'd be possible. Would be a huge undertaking though.
ilalex
Use AdBlock, Luke!
fatihdonmez
it's solution but consider it as opportunity for new startups. I'm considering it as a problem with current sites.
mooism2
How do you propose it would be paid for? (a) by uploaders; (b) by viewers; (c) by donations; (d) some combination thereof (can't see (c) co-existing with (a) or (b) though); (e) some other way?

What costs need covering?

thejosh
How else do they generate revenue if not for ads? Subscriptions?
pathy
I believe Google was talking about introducing a premium feature for Youtube?

That said, video hosting is expensive, very expensive. Especially at the scale of Youtube. How do you propose that they should earn money? Ads is a damn good way of doing it, especially when you got the massive advertising organization that is Google backing it.

sdrinf
That sounds an excellent idea! In fact, it sounds so excellent, it's already built, deployed, and used by millions, under the domain name vimeo.com .

However, the business problem raised by mooism2 -specifically, revenue streams, and covering costs - have visible consequences, in that the vast majority of content producers would opt not to pay for distribution of their content.

Also note, that youtube was never built to generate revenue -it was specifically built to flop to one of the big players.

In short, to consider this as an opportunity, you need to radically innovate on extracting alternative revenue streams from viewers, producers, or third parties.

meerita
We also have Twitch.tv. You pay, no ads.
corin_
Very different content concept though: it's a gaming focus, and it's very much a live-content focus (can't remember exact figures, but their VOD viewing is tiny compared to live-stream viewing). And even then, the majority of their revenue is going to stay with advertising, not subscriptions.
meerita
I only enter Youtube to follow videobloggers gamers. I understand the point, but well, usstream I guess its wide open compared. I just gave an example.
corin_
Going off topic a little, do you follow any Europeans? I'm looking for suggestions of people to sponsor, and always interested to hear opinions!
meerita
There's Athene in Belgium. He's pretty huge videobloguer, but the EU are moving to USA and streaming a lot.
kfk
I thing the solution lies in the distribution. Think competing against big Hollywood stuff: it is by now mainly a marketing-distribution issue. Say somebody made a movie and had to distribute to a big audience, how can he/she do it? How can he/she monetize it?

For puppies videos, I think you can't (and don't want) beat youtube.

ricardobeat
Coincidentally, Vimeo has just launched their first exclusive feature film: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/somegirls
kfk
Nice to see this. However, does it look like they solved the distribution part? None of this movies got to me through ads, social networks, friends advice, etc. While take "World War Z", I probably knew about it few days after it's launch.
munimkazia
A video hosting and streaming service is very expensive to maintain. You have to recoup your maintenance costs in the most effective way. For youtube, that turned out to be video ads with their partner program.
thesmileyone
I don't see any ads as I run blockers, but it is getting stupid- youtube is not buffering properly all over the world forcing people to restart their videos (and hence have to watch more ad's). I swear they have done this on purpose.

http://tinyurl.com/oorppd6

mknits
Use AdBlock Edge instead of AdBlock Plus. ABE is open-source and consumes much less RAM than ABP.