• @pinwurm @manned_meatball I wonder if if Nvidia Video Upscaling and similar tech could also help 480p videos turn HD. That could help bandwidth reduction but it isn’t a solution as much as a workaround.

    I think the day will come when YouTube caps uploads or stops them entirely. Maybe limiting user’s uploads for videos that don’t get high viewership. Eventually this model can’t go on forever, I can’t even comprehend how it’s profitable currently.

    • @pinwurm@lemmy.ml
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      fedilink
      11 year ago

      YouTube is very profitable.

      Targeted ad revenue is massive - and Google owns both the platform and ad delivery system (AdSense). As well, YouTube Premium and YouTube TV exist.

      YouTube Premium has 50 million subscribers.
      YouTube TV is great for live sports and has something like 6 million subscribers now (compared to Comcast who has around 15 million TV subscribers). It’s only going up. At $73/mo, that earns them $5.25 Billion a year in subscription fees alone.

      While they have high expenses, they’re rolling in money.

      As data compression gets better and hardware becomes cheaper - YouTube’s operating costs get cheaper… which means bigger paychecks for execs.