YouTube is among the streaming services that don't put its content behind a paywall, provided that users have to endure ads. The long-form video site is offering its ad-free Premium Lite in select countries, but subscribers will soon find themselves choosing between Premium and Free as the Lite plan is taken down.
Premium Lite Plan Removal
It's only been two years since the YouTube Premium Lite subscription plan was an option for users. It was released in select European countries back in 2021 such as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Sadly for those who are enjoying the cheaper ad-free tier, the plan will no longer exist after October 25th. The Lite plan costs €6.99 a month, which will likely increase in price on par with the Premium subscription price from other countries.
In case you don't know, the difference between the Premium and Premium Lite plans is that the latter only offers an ad-free experience, but it does not come with other perks like offline download, background playback, or YouTube Music benefits, as reported by The Verge.
Once the subscription tier has been taken down, users will have to choose between Premium or watching YouTube videos with ads. To ease the transition, the platform will offer Lite subscribers a one-month free trial of YouTube Premium.
As stated in the company's email to the Lite users: "While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators, and partners."
In order to redeem the free YouTube Premium month, subscribers have to cancel their Lite plan or wait for the subscription to be canceled. Either way, subscribers are not too happy about it especially since some users have no interest in other features aside from the removal of ads.
YouTube Premium Price Increase
It seems that streaming services raising their prices has become a common theme. Just like the others, YouTube's subscription cost was raised back in July. in the US, what was once a $11.99 monthly charge has seen a $2 increase.
Even before that around the end of 2022, YouTube also implemented a price increase for the family Premium plans as it went up to $22.99 a month. The annual subscription has seen a $20 increase back in January 2022, which puts it at $139.99 a year.
A YouTube spokesperson explained that the company updated the price in the US for Premium plans in both YouTube and YouTube Music to "continue delivering great service and features," as reported by 9To5Google.
In addition to that, the company says that they believe the new pricing reflects the value of YouTube Premium which allows subscribers to enjoy ad-free YouTube, background and offline play, as well as uninterrupted access to more than 100 million songs in YouTube Music.
The streaming giant is not alone in that increase. Spotify has also increased its price in back in July. Amazon Prime is even putting its ad-tier subscription service behind a paywall, where users will have to pay extra to get an ad-free experience.
