YouTube Introducing Premium Lite Subscription Tier to the U.S.
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YouTube Introducing Premium Lite Subscription Tier to the U.S.

by Kyle Burbank

As rumored, YouTube is bringing a new tier of its Premium service to viewers in the United States.

About YouTube Premium Lite:

YouTube is rolling out a cheaper version of its popular Premium service. Today, the site announced that it would begin piloting Premium Lite in the United States.

With Premium Lite, viewers will enjoy an ad-free experience on most YouTube videos — or, as YouTube Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich described it “core creator content.” This includes gaming, fashion, beauty, news, and more. However, the main exception to this ad-free option is music. Additionally, beyond music and music videos, YouTube also warns that Premium Lite subscribers may encounter ads in the Shorts feed as well as when searching or browsing.

In terms of price, the new Premium Lite tier will cost $7.99 per month in the United States. By comparison, the regular Premium tier is currently $13.99 per month but includes a completely ad-free experience (including on music and music videos), the ability to download videos for offline play, background play, and other features. According to YouTube, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium recently reached more than 125 million subscribers globally (including trials). As for Premium Lite, the offering has been testing in Thailand, Germany, and Australia. In fact, YouTube says it will be making the option available to all users in those countries “in the coming weeks.”

What they’re saying:

Speaking to YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie, Voolich said of the new Lite tier’s introduction, “When we talked to our users, what we found is there’s a whole swath of people who want an ad-free, uninterrupted streaming service but they don’t necessarily want a music service. So that’s where we got the idea of Premium Lite.”

My thoughts:

If you consider YouTube to be a streaming service in the conversation alongside the likes of Netflix and Disney+, it’s easily the one I watch and interact with the most (beyond being a creator myself). Yet, the $13.99 price tag for Premium always scared me off — and this despite the fact that I learned from a trial just how wonderful an ad-free YouTube experience can be. In other words, I’m exactly the type of person that this $7.99 Lite tier is likely targeting. Sure enough, since I first heard rumors about the product, I’ve been wondering if I might cancel my rarely used $7.99 per month Netflix subscription and earmark those funds for a YouTube Premium Lite subscription instead.

Although YouTube is calling this Premium Lite rollout a pilot program, I personally think it will prove successful — but, of course, we’ll have to wait and see on that.

Author

Kyle Burbank

Head Writer ~ Fioney
Kyle is the head writer for Fioney. He is a personal finance nerd, constantly looking for new apps and services to test and incorporate into his own financial game plan. In addition to his role at Fioney, he's written for other publications including Born2Invest, Lifehack, and Laughing Place, as well as his own site Money@30. He also creates personal finance and travel-related videos for Fioney's YouTube channel, which has garnered more than 2 million views. Currently, Kyle resides in Springfield, Missouri with his wife of 10 years. Together, they enjoy traveling (including visiting Disney Parks around the world), dining, and playing with their dog Rigby.

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