During yesterday's earnings call, Google (GOOG) execs said YouTube will finally be profitable soon. How?

By continuing to add short- and long-form premium content and then selling pre-roll ads against it.

Following this recipe, Google sales topper Nikesh Arora said YouTube's "monetized views" more than tripled in the last year.

Overall YouTube views were only up 64%, according to ComScore.

YouTube gained a lot of its popularity swearing off pre-rolls in its early days, but Nikesh says viewers accept that when it comes to premium content, they'll have to pay for it or watch an ad.

We also recently reported that due to several factors, including Google's ability to buy bandwidth in volume, YouTube's costs may be significantly lower than analysts previously estimated.

Go to ESPN's YouTube channel for an example of how the pre-roll ad thing works.