YouTube is on a multiyear crusade against ad blockers. In an effort to stop people from using browser plugins to get rid of ads, it’s escalated from sending “Hey, stop using those” nudges to completely shutting off their ability to see videos unless and until they disabled the blockers. And, most recently, we’ve seen reports that Chrome (the browser owned by YouTube parent Google) has apparently stopped supporting uBlock Origin, one of the most popular ad blockers on the market.
So what’s the deal? Well, YouTube relies on the ~$40 billion of ad revenue it earns each year. Creators get paid because YouTube gives them a portion of the revenue from ads run on their videos. We get it. But, at the same time, YouTube has been steadily increasing the amount of advertising across its platform, including 60-second unskippable ads and ads that pop up when you pause a video.
Viewers are getting ad fatigue–and YouTube seems to know that, because as it’s been increasing ads, it’s also been promoting Premium, its $13/month ad-free service. Premium started as a way for users to access YouTube’s in-house-produced originals like Cobra Kai, but after YouTube decided to stop pursing originals, its biggest draw is that subscribers will not see a single ad while they’re watching videos. It also lets people play videos in the background on mobile, download videos to watch offline, test experimental features, and use YouTube Music.
YouTube has pushed the price of Premium up a couple times (and it’s a whopping $19 if you subscribe via mobile), but now seems to realize more people might pay for it if there was a cheaper option.
Bloomberg reports YouTube plants to introduce “Premium Lite,” a lower-cost tier that will still let people watch ad-free. A person familiar with the matter said the tier will debut soon in the U.S., Australia, Germany, and Thailand, and will target people “who primarily want to watch programs other than music videos.”
That’s because Premium Lite apparently will not remove ads from music videos; only the full YouTube Premium will do that.
“As part of our commitment to provide our users with more choice and flexibility, we’ve been testing a new YouTube Premium offering with most videos ad-free in several of our markets,” a YouTube spokesperson confirmed in a statement. “We’re hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners’ support.”
While, yes, YouTube is clearly angling to get more people onboarded to Premium instead of using ad blockers, there may be another component to this.
As Bloomberg points out, this new tier also comes as YouTube and Spotify are increasingly battling for podcast dominance. If the new tier is priced lower or equal to Spotify’s subscription, people may be more likely to subscribe for ad-free listening to podcasts on YouTube (and YouTube would really dig that, judging by recent statements from CEO Neal Mohan).
There’s no official information yet about how much Premium Lite might cost, but Dexerto reports Australian users with access to the tier are paying around $7.50 USD a month.
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