Summary
YouTubehas announced the expansion of its Premium Lite pilot to US territories. The new tier is more affordable than regular YouTube Premium, but it doesn’t remove all ads.YouTubealso intends to roll out the service in other countries in the future.
On March 5,YouTube revealedthat it’s rolling out its Premium Lite pilot in the US for $7.99 a month, which allows users to watch “most videos” ad-free. According to YouTube’s chief product officer, Johanna Voolich, this will include videos related to gaming, beauty, news, podcasting, tutorials, and more “core creator content.” Unlike the standard YouTube Premium tier, though, Premium Lite doesn’t give users access to YouTube Music or ad-free music videos. The new tier won’t grant offline downloads or background play either. Additionally, ads will still show up with Premium Lite in Shorts, music content, or when searching and browsing. In 2024,YouTube earned a record $36 billion, and most of the earnings likely came from ads. It makes sense that the platform will come up with more ways to make ads profitable. It is worth noting that a standard YouTube Premium subscription costs a monthly US $13.99.
