YouTube is about to officially launch a cheaper, “premium limited” version of its subscription service in the US, Australia, Germany, and Thailand, Bloomberg reports. This new tier will be “targeted at viewers who primarily want to watch programs other than music videos,” Bloomberg writes. The publication did not say what the price might be.
YouTube launched a pilot version of an ad-free tier called Premium Lite in some European countries starting in 2021, and then canceled the plan in 2023. But in October, the company confirmed that it was testing a “different version” of Premium Lite, and at least one user reported that the new version has a limited amount of advertising. That user saw that Premium Lite was priced at AU$8.99 per month (versus AU$16.99 for regular YouTube Premium).
In a statement, YouTube spokesperson Paul Pennington said that the company is testing “a new YouTube Premium offering with more ad-free videos” and that “we hope to expand this offering to even more users in the future with the support of our partners.” Pennington did not specify whether this service will be launched in the US and how much it might cost.
