YOUTUBE MOBILE… OFFLINE?

YouTube is poised to allow downloading of videos from mobile devices to watch offline when an Internet connection isn’t available. Thus far, it had only gone so far as implementing pre-downloading through its Android app, in which users could start a video online and finish watching it offline. The new offline feature will become available in November.

There are however, a few questions YouTube has not yet addressed:

How long will the offline videos be available for viewing? Will they expire like library e-book rentals?

What will the impact be on advertising on its mobile app?

Will mobile inventory decrease if advertising isn’t included in this feature?

Or will pre-roll be hard-coded into the downloaded videos to ensure ads are seen?

Will they offer only forced pre-roll or also True View? How will this be tracked?

What do YOU think? Leave your thoughts below.