The advertisements on the sidebars have been there since soon after Google took over YouTube. After months of contemplating a way to monetize the service Google has started showing some content sensitive ads in the video window. Two scenarios that come to mind: users may be put off seeing the ads in the middle of the video viewport and could potentially seek other emerging Web2.0 (the concept not just design) based services like Vimeo. Second, what could be better than getting ads based on your product research, afterall it only gives you more leads.
What is of import here is whether this is only an experimental ad delivery method. News websites monetize their video services through ads served before and in-between news clips. Fortunately Google has been considerate about our bandwidths by not forcing data downloads.
An alternative revenue model could be charging major ISP’s commisions based on volume usage. However, this would require a substantive buy-in from ISP’s and could possible lead to the service’s demise. To circumvent change issues another approach could be to charge the users a premium for removing ads from their videos. This could work for those users who run “subscription based channels”. Commercial users could also be charged a premium to remove competitor ads from from their video pages altogether. Tactics like these could very well create a win-win situation for both Google and YouTube users.
ThinkingCap - plugged in to the head 