/DRIVE youtube channel is changing
 

/DRIVE has been one of my favorite youtube related car channels for a long time. The strugles of providing quality content and trying to make money is hurting it seems.

This article explains why;

Pay per view: PH Blog - PistonHeads

Going forward they will have 3 ways to watch their content. They've released a short video explaining it which can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/DRIVEplus

I know there are a lot of /DRIVE fans here so what do you guys think about this $3.99/month subscription model. I'd really like to have a 'schedule' of what's going to be coming out when and how long they plan to run a season.

If they release a lot of content $3.99 is nothing but this really hurts fans in countries where they can't sub like Brazil, Germany, etc.

I only watch Chris Harris

He's back btw,

Going forward I believe a full video of his, which would varry from 10-30 minutes in length, would be condensed down to 3-4 minutes on the FREE method of viewing.

You would have to subscribe for the full blown Chris Harris experience.

Or wait for someone to inevitably re-up it to a non subscription channel lol

Sorry I'm not paying $3.99/month for a YouTube channel.

didn't Drive expand to NBC Sports?

So much fail @ Drive

Here is what you need.

1. Driver/ Reviewer
2. Director/ Cinematographer
3. Production Editor
4. Couple interns to deal with audio and set up
5. Up to Date Gear

Apparently, they had to put their own dime to reviews cars around the world. These guys are not even good businessmen, who in their right mind to put themselves in hotels to review million dollar cars from billion dollar manufactures. God, Drive = Stupidity

Is that all?

You do realize how much all that would cost, no? I'm sure you could find a reviewer/driver who would be willing to do that stuff for free, provided room and board is paid for. However, "up to date gear" (including sound equipment, camera gear, proper audio and video editing computer and software) can easily run you $100,000+. I have a ton of low end gear (prosumer video camera that cost me $5k, $2k in lenses, a Sennheiser lavalier set that ran about $500 for two mic's and a receiver, an editing computer that has $1500 in upgrades [plus the cost of Adobe Premiere Pro], plus filters, lighting equipment, stands, cables, etc., etc., etc.). Good equipment costs 50x as much as my stuff. Those cameras they use on Top Gear? You're looking at $150,000 for EACH camera. And that is just for the body. Lenses come separate.

And then you have to consider how much a decent Director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Sound Engineer, Video Editor and the rest of the crew will cost. Even below local union wages, you're looking at easily $3000 for a day's worth of crew costs.

Not to mention insurance costs for the vehicle and whatever venue they're shooting in.





I don't agree with the way YouTube is going about charging for certain channels, but the guys at /Drive certainly do have an absolutely valid case for charging for views. Video production costs a ton of money.

Edit: BTW, even reviewers like Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Top Gear and the like will occasionally have to pay a company/owner in order to drive a car. They aren't always given cars for free to drive.

If DRIVE is that good, why wouldn't a network pick them up and finance a tv show out of this.

Most youtubers made it without cooperate monetary backing or a large amount of start up money.

Honestly? As long as it stays at 4 bucks a month i'm not too against it... I think i can pay less than the price of a frappunchino a month for awesome content about awesome cars...
Maybe i'm just gullible though.

/Drive already had a two year contract with money from Youtube financing their previous films. That deal is now done and they're looking for new ways to fund their videos. Corporate backing is great and all, but more often than not, they company paying you will inevitably ask for advertising (see The Smoking Tire or Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee) that tends to take away from the overall experience. I imagine that's what they're trying to avoid here. And them being picked up by NBC is great and all, but often for a relatively unknown (read: new) show on TV, the freedom they're given is often extremely lacking.

I probably wont bother, as I never really watch many car reviews, but shit, 4 bucks.....Its really not much to complain about. That wouldn't even pay for the pint I had after work, and that was only like 12 minutes of entertainment.

The pricing is ridiculous.

$4 is half of what Netflix charges per month.

$10 per season of Chris Harris is reasonable. I don't understand how they could think that people are willing to pay upwards of $50 per year to watch an hours worth entertainment.

It's a shame they've had to do this. I loved watching all of Chris' videos and he's been the only person to come close to truly rival TG. They could have made more money by asking for donations.

Ridiculous? 1 zone bus to and from work is is $5.50 a day, its all perspective.

They put up 900 videos last year.

Instead of bitching about the price why not support something you enjoy? Vote with your money and prove that this kind of content is what you want to see. Or get a starbucks coffee and drive an extra 5 mins a day....

Rich

Some have said that this is like when we used to sub to a car magazine and get content once a month.

Now instead of pretty pictures we're getting great quality video somewhat daily.

I can't be the only one here that used to subscribe to car magazines back in the day. Paying for stuff used to be the norm. The problem most people have is that they expect top notch production quality, all the while feeling like they're not obligated to pay for it.

Film is expensive. I know; I used to work in the industry. Could they get away with using only GoPro's and cheap dSLR's? Yes, but the quality suffers and it's instantly noticeable, and then people will start bitching about that instead.

This describes it perfectly, There is a huge demographic of young tech savvy people that don't feel they have to pay for convenience anymore. Back when the Iphone 4s came out almost every big name newspaper had an app for their company hence the decline in print media. Apps are free and convenient.

I can understand why people don't want to pay for something that was always free. But I can see them taking a new approach.

We call it "Freemium". Basically give the user a chance to look at a 1 minute clip of every episode so he/she can decide if they wish to pay for a subscription. This 14 day trial is bullshit cause what if next month they release a video you're really into but wait your 14 day trial is over. Candy Crush is a good example of freemium. it's a free app with in app purchase's of hearts/lives. You can play whenever but the app has borders which you can bypass with an in app purchase.

I don't believe in subscription based services. I'm part of a huge group, that's currently growing, that wants to pay for what they need and nothing more. In some cases it makes sense, like Netflix, but Youtube is a terrible place to implement it. You start by paying drive at 4$ then next thing you know your make up tutorials is now 4$ and on and on. An average user of youtube watches at least 4 youtubers that they come back for daily. so 16$ a month and then there is those odd videos where you watch like once a month but then you would have to pay2subscribe.

YouTube won't stay free forever. Sooner or later it'll be so unfiltered that they'll charge youtubers for space on their website(which they already somewhat are) and from there youtubers would charge subscribers. It's a big ecosystem filled with advertisements and endorsements.

just put that in perspective of the gas milage of your cars :joy:

I agree with youtube not staying free forever because a lot of content providers will be inching towards pay per use down the road. The misconception is a lot of content providers can make tons of money just on ad's generated from views/subscribers, this isn't entirely true. High end content is very expensive to produce and people need to get paid. I would be interested to know what sort of deal /drive made with NBC.