It would probably work if it were just a -$1 ad credit on each download? Except it looks like they are making their money here on sponsorship and upsells rather than youtube ad revenue.
This worked so well for twitter blue
Or watched
Seeing Google try to turn YouTube (something kinda democractic where anyone can publish and search should be the great leveller) into something like Netflix (pros content only, old Yahoo style directory) is fun to watch.