YouTube has emailed users of its Premium Lite tier to let them know that the EUR 6.99 package is going away from 25 October 2023. If you have never heard of this tier, that’s because it’s only available in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
With YouTube Premium Lite, subscribers could get an ad-free YouTube experience. It differs from other versions of YouTube Premium, though, as you don’t have access to YouTube Music or have the ability to download videos for offline viewing.
For those affected by the change, it will be a big step up in terms of pricing if customers want to carry on experiencing YouTube ad-free. In other European countries like France and Germany, customers are forking out EUR 11.99 per month.
In an email to subscribers, YouTube said that Premium Lite will no longer be available after 25 October 2023. It acknowledged that the change will be disappointing news for customers but that it’s continuing to work on different versions of Premium Lite using feedback from users, creators, and partners.
While YouTube didn’t bring the matter up in the email, the platform seems to have ramped up the number and length of the ads it shows to users. This could be to do with falling ad revenues since the start of the year. If Google intends to keep the current level of ads after revenues increase, it may not think the EUR 6.99 Premium Lite tier is bringing in enough money anymore.
Whatever the reason, users in the select European countries will need to get used to paying more or put up with ads. Given YouTube’s comments, it will be interesting to see whether it reintroduces a similar tier in the future and in more markets. There are probably quite a lot of people who would pay for a reduced Premium tier if it meant they could avoid ads.
Source: The Verge