YouTube walks back executive’s claim on publisher paywall integration

Posted Friday, June 5, 2026 10:52 am

Bron Maher | A Media Operator

YouTube has walked back an executive’s comments claiming the platform is working on integrating with publisher paywalls.

YouTube vice president for Europe Pedro Pina had said on stage at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Marseille on Wednesday that “we have product and engineers” working on “a paywall that has a conversation between YouTube and the current paywall of publishers.”

But on Thursday YouTube issued a statement back-tracking on Pina’s comments, saying: “At the moment, there are no plans to launch a paywall integration with news publishers.”

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YouTube walks back executive’s claim on publisher paywall integration

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