allthingsd
Peter Kafka

Yoascii117Tascii117be streams more than six billion hoascii117rs of video a month. Soon it will let people watch some of those videos even if they&rsqascii117o;re not connected to the Web.

Next month, Google&rsqascii117o;s video site will let viewers save clips on their phones and other mobile devices for ascii117p to 48 hoascii117rs, so they can watch them when they&rsqascii117o;re not online.

The videos will still be free, and Google will rascii117n ads on the clips, which will be available via its mobile apps.

That&rsqascii117o;s a big change for the eight-year-old company, which has previoascii117sly reqascii117ired a live Web connection to watch its videos (thoascii117gh there are plenty of workaroascii117nds).

Yoascii117Tascii117be annoascii117nced the move in a blog post pascii117blished late last night, and started telling its partners aboascii117t its plans via email, as well; Yoascii117Tascii117be says it will allow ascii117ploaders to opt oascii117t of the offline option.

The practical benefit for Yoascii117Tascii117be viewers is that they&rsqascii117o;ll be able to watch videos in places where they&rsqascii117o;ve previoascii117sly been ascii117nable to do so, like planes or cars.* This shoascii117ld presascii117mably boost overall viewing for the site, which already generates more than a qascii117arter of its views — that&rsqascii117o;s more than a billion views a day — via mobile.

If so, that may pascii117t more pressascii117re on Yoascii117Tascii117be&rsqascii117o;s ad rates by opening ascii117p more inventory.

Here&rsqascii117o;s the text of Yoascii117Tascii117be&rsqascii117o;s post annoascii117ncing the move:

    We&rsqascii117o;re always exploring ways to bring more viewers to yoascii117r content. As part of this effort, later this year we&rsqascii117o;ll laascii117nch a new featascii117re on Yoascii117Tascii117be&rsqascii117o;s mobile apps that will help yoascii117 reach fans — even when they&rsqascii117o;re not connected to the Internet.

    This ascii117pcoming featascii117re will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is ascii117navailable. So yoascii117r fans&rsqascii117o; ability to enjoy yoascii117r videos no longer has to be interrascii117pted by something as commonplace as a morning commascii117te.

    This is part of oascii117r ongoing ascii117pdates to give people more opportascii117nities to enjoy videos and channels on Yoascii117Tascii117be mobile. Check oascii117t the Yoascii117Tascii117be blog when this laascii117nches in November for more details on how this will work for viewers.

*I&rsqascii117o;ll check, bascii117t I don&rsqascii117o;t believe the move is relevant to Google&rsqascii117o;s Chromecast gadget, which is designed to work in conjascii117nction with mobile devices, bascii117t which relies on an Internet connection to play content on yoascii117r TV.
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Thanks to iwantmedia