Folk who want to watch their multi-hour-long YouTube documentaries without an ad break every few minutes may finally have a cheaper way to do it. The Alphabet-owned streaming service has long been testing a cheaper ad-less subscription tier called YouTube Premium Lite. If the latest reports can be believed, it may come to fruition in 2025, though it probably won’t offer all the perks of the $14-a-month Premium subscription.
The last time we heard about Premium Lite was in October last year. YouTube had tested the feature in the EU until October 2023, and since then, the company has been radio silent on new subscription pricing. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Premium Lite would come to the U.S. and several other markets worldwide. A YouTube spokesperson told the outlet it would offer “most videos ad-free.” Google reiterated it has been testing this tier in several markets outside the U.S.
“We’re hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners’ support,” the spokesperson told the outlet.
The new tier could allow you to watch all your regular videos and podcasts without those annoying ad breaks, though it may restrict you from other benefits, like ad-free YouTube Music. Other perks, like offline downloads and background play, would also be restricted to the more expensive tier. As evidenced by leaked screenshots from last year, Premium Lite may offer “limited ads” that will still appear over YouTube Shorts or when you search for content.
YouTube still hasn’t offered a firm release date or pricing structure. Other markets show that Lite was priced at half that of YouTube Premium in those markets. That doesn’t mean Premium Lite will cost $7 a month. Since July 2023, YouTube Premium has cost $14 a month for an individual or $23 for a family plan. The streaming service last raised the cost of Premium for users outside the U.S. in September last year. Late in 2024, it ended legacy pricing for those who used to have a paid Music subscription through Google Play Music or YouTube Red.
Alphabet’s bread and butter streaming service has been at war against ad blockers and those who use them, claiming they violate the app’s terms of service. In the meantime, YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan was ecstatic over new metrics that showed more users watch YouTube videos on TVs than on mobile. This means subscribers can be further inundated with pause ads and QR codes that make advertisers so smitten with streaming ads. The migration to TVs is a further boon to YouTube since people have fewer opportunities to avoid ads when they’re forced into the limited UI on Google TV or Amazon Fire TV, for example.
Mohan claimed its YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services have more than 100 million subscribers. They plan to bring “new benefits” to Premium subscribers, so there may be more ways to differentiate Premium Lite and Premium when the new tier finally hits the scene. However, users expect something different on TVs than on mobile apps. If users pay for their $18-a-month Netflix subscription, they may not be as keen on another $14 for what they may consider less-premium content. These services will only get more expensive as time goes on, and if experience has taught us anything, we shouldn’t expect Premium to stay at $14 for much longer.