Ustream continues to add subscription options as it attempts to make the freemium model work. At least the latest one – Premium Memberships – is a lot cheaper than Ad-Free Broadcasting.
Ustream – From Strength-To-Strength
continues to grow from its humble beginnings in 2007. It now has millions of users streaming many more millions of hours of live programming. Not all of it is watchable, admittedly, but the mere fact it’s there and being broadcast is testament to the success of the site.
Charlie Sheen recently generated lots of publicity (but not all that many viewers) by hosting his own show on the site in the immediate aftermath of his firing from Two and a Half Men. But the bread-and-butter of the site is its hordes of ordinary people broadcasting their lives on the Internet.
Ad-Free Video Options
All Ustream users now have a couple of options for removing the advertising from the site.
Broadcasters have had the option to stream without ads for a while now, but it’s expensive, with prices ranging from $99-per-month (for 100 hours) to $999-per-month (9,000 hours). Now viewers have a similar, but much cheaper, option.
Ustream Premium Memberships offer several features for just $3.99-per-month. For that you get a complete ad-free experience, a highlighted social stream for comments, and a shiny badge showing you’re special status off to everyone. OK, so losing the commercials is good, the rest not so.
Conclusions
I’m a fan of the freemium model for websites and Web services making money (at least in the main). So I’m all for this added option. Ustream already has competition and is likely to face even more in the future in the form of a live option from YouTube. So it’s as good a time as any to start offering this kind of added functionality.
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