YouTube has planned to end its Premium Lite subscription tier on October 25. Users paying for the Premium Lite subscription tier will be required to subscribe to the platform’s Premium tier if they want to continue an ad-free video-watching experience on the app.
The company announced the news in an email it sent to its users on Tuesday, adding that it will be creating more subscription tiers based on feedback from creators and viewers.
“While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators and partners,” the email read.
Premium Lite has only been in existence since 2021 and never reached global availability.
The ad-free tier was first launched in select European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. For €6.99 per month, users in these countries have been able to watch videos across YouTube’s various apps without ads.
YouTube’s full-fledged Premium subscription, which costs $14 per month and spans the globe, offers ad-free viewing plus other features like offline downloads, background playback and YouTube music benefits.
The company has promised to give current Premium Lite subscribers a free month-long Premium subscription regardless of whether they have used their trial.
However, Premium Lite subscribers are voicing their dissatisfaction over the change. On Reddit, users responded to the announcement by stating that they refuse to pay double the price to watch ad-free videos.
“They’re shooting themselves in the foot if they leave the full-fat premium as the only option available,” one user wrote. Another user wrote, “This is the point where I’ll stop using YouTube…guess this is goodbye after 17 years.”
