It should come as no surprise that after attracting millions of content creators and billions of viewers, Google is developing new ways of monetizing YouTube. Starting today, the company is introducing a pilot program for a select group of partners. These contributors are offering paid channels with subscription fees starting at 99 cents per month. Each channel comes with a 14-day free trial, and some include discounted yearly rates, which is very similar to how Google offers magazines in the Play Store.

Sesame Street is one of the partners included in the pilot program and will offer full episodes through their paid channel. UFC will offer full replays of classic fights. National Geographic, The Young Turks, PGA, and many others are already included on the list of paid channels available. More partners will be able to adopt the service in the weeks ahead.

While the specifics are new, the creation of paid channels comes as no surprise. An update to the YouTube Android app earlier this year all but confirmed that pay-to-view channels were on their way. Now that they're here, do you plan on subscribing to any?

Source: The Official YouTube Blog