Google set to relaunch Premium Lite subscription for a budget-friendly YouTube experience
Google is reportedly gearing up to reintroduce its Premium Lite subscription, which was eliminated in 2023, allowing users to enjoy a largely ad-free YouTube experience at a significantly reduced cost. According to Bloomberg, an official announcement regarding the Premium Lite package is expected soon, targeting markets in the United States, Australia, Germany, and Thailand.
The Premium Lite tier has been undergoing trials in Australia, Germany, and Thailand since late last year, but has yet to reach U.S. consumers. Users who choose this subscription will encounter "limited ads," meaning they will still see ads before music videos and banners on the site. However, they will forgo some features associated with the traditional YouTube Premium, such as offline downloads and background playback. Notably, the majority of videos would remain ad-free.
Pricing for the new tier is projected to fall between $6 and $8, a significant drop from the current $14 monthly fee for standard YouTube Premium. This new offering could appeal particularly to users who already pay for costly music services like YouTube Music or Spotify, providing them with an attractive option to reduce their monthly entertainment expenses without sacrificing much of the YouTube experience.
Industry analysts suggest that the revival of the Premium Lite subscription could shift revenue dynamics for content creators on the platform. With more subscribers opting for a lower-cost tier, subscription-based earnings may begin to outpace ad revenue, reshaping the monetization landscape on YouTube. As Google seeks to grow its subscriber base, it remains uncertain whether this move will affect the current YouTube Music subscriber count.
As speculation mounts regarding the imminent launch of Premium Lite, many users, including critics of the prior pricing model, are expressing optimism for a more economical path to enjoying ad-free YouTube.
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I won’t pay for it. Google will still serve the “lite” crowd ads or do something else devious. That is their way. I use Firefox and UblockOrigin. I never log in.
But they punish you by ever increasing ram and or cpu, so I have to restart instances using Porcess Lasso or close the tab and restart. I only have 8gb.
Here is a question for you. I have always used NoScript and now find I must have Google.com enabled or the video stops after 1 minute.
Remember when they made it necessary to add jnn-pa.googleapis.com or the video would stop? Now it happens if Google.com is not also enabled. I have tried to find someone talking about this change but found nothing. When It worked without that enabled I had to click reload immediately to get the video to load and play but that was better than having Google.com on all the time. It worked better that way. Never a blank screen or any other rubbish.
Hmm, this might be beneficial for folks like my Dad who only watches YouTube on his Roku TV. I have tried other ways to block YouTube ads on his Roku TV, but there is not much I can do since it is app based and not just a web browser.
“Google set to relaunch Premium Lite subscription for a budget-friendly YouTube experience”
No need.
I have a better budget friendly YT experience. It’s called UBlockOrigin and a dash of yt-dlp.
Both are free.
Your move, You Tube.