YouTube Gets Ready for - Pay to Remove Ads

YouTube is moving ahead with an option that would give its viewers a chance to skip ads -- for a fee.

Currently, most YouTube videos include brief commercials that play at the beginning of a selection, while some ads are also embedded throughout.

The online video service Wednesday notified by letter many of its biggest content creators of this pending ad-free subscription option, asking them to sign off on new contract terms.

YouTube said its subscription service would give content creators an "untapped, additional source of revenue," TechCrunch reported.

"With the subscription model in place, YouTube would begin to resemble something that's more like Netflix -- a place where consumers pay for access to content that can be streamed on-demand, uninterrupted," TechCrunch wrote.

The letter did not say how much YouTube planned to charge for its ad-free version or say when this service would be available. Bloomberg.com said the subscription service could be launched late this year.

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