YouTube Fires Shot Across Cable TV's Bow

With a widely expected announcement to let some YouTube channels charge monthly subscriptions of 99 cents and up, Forbes is reporting Google is positioning its video site as the anti-cable TV: a video service willing to offer individual channels on the cheap rather than force people to buy huge bundles of channels, most of which they’ll never watch.

Unfortunately, YouTube remains the anti-cable TV in another sense: Its subscription offerings include almost nothing you’ve ever heard of unless you’re a pretty avid of specific YouTube channels, or a kid (or have kids). They include Sesame Street, National Geographic Kids, Treehouse Direct, and other kid-oriented fare, plus Ultimate Fighting Championship and other testosterone-fueled shows as well as a scattering of others such as the talk show Young Turks.

That’s right, there’s nothing from Disney, Comcast CMCSA -0.73%/NBCUniversal or any other major media company. And the vast majority of channels will remain free and ad-supported.

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