I’m no PeerTube expert, but I don’t see how federation and paywalls can mix. If the content on your paywalled instance is federated with non-paywalled instances, why would anyone pay for access to your instance? It would have to be a “walled garden” of paywalled instances that only peer with each other and have some kind of revenue sharing, which doesn’t sound realistic.
Peertube
A free software to take back control of your videos
Peertube is an open, federated alternative to Youtube without advertising or tracking. On this site, you can find a good Peertube instance, with good rules, good moderation and most importantly a friendly community.
I don't think there is a plugin available for that, it clashes a bit with the Free Culture idea behind Peertube... But there is a visibility setting for videos. You can protect them with a password and give that to paying subscribers. Or set videos as "unlisted" and sell the links on another platform. Or set them to "internal" and sell accounts for your instance.
I guess the last option you give is essentially what means and nebula do really.
I do something similar to it and it works OK, even though not amazing. I think a lot of schools and organizations do that also.
I upload the videos which should only be available ta a small group which I manage on my instance and mark them as internal. This way users on my instance can watch them but the public on the internet can't.
You could make a user for people who played a subscription fee only in that case.
Why I say it works OK and not great is because then federation doesn't work and you would need a new user on each instance you pay for.
lol no