YouTube ad plans 'to control content'

YouTube's plans to share advertising revenues with the people who upload videos to its site may prepare the way for it to exact greater commercial control over content, say commentators.

Chief executive of YouTube, Chad Hurley, said at Davos this weekend that the company is working on a system to allow users to be paid for their content.

At present YouTube subscribers do not receive any royalties but they do not have to give the site exclusive rights to their videos.

Nicholas Carr, former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, said on his blog Rough Type: "I would bet that. . . at some point in the not-too-distant future, YouTube will demand an exclusive license in return for payment.