Google is already making YouTube Premium Lite worse

Abstract

YouTube is including extra advertisements to Premium Lite, particularly concentrating on YouTube Shorts.
Premium Lite gives fewer advertisements at $8 a month however lacks different Premium options, like background play.
YouTube Premium Lite remains to be largely ad-free, however how for much longer will that final? It seems like Premium Lite is simply too good to be true.

YouTube Premium Lite solely launched within the US two months in the past, however Google is already making modifications to its extra inexpensive YouTube Premium various.

YouTube has begun to electronic mail Premium Lite clients to tell them that extra advertisements will quickly be showing on YouTube for them (through Neowin). Proper now, YouTube Premium Lite gives an ad-free expertise on “most movies,” with the first exception being music movies. On the finish of June, that can reportedly be modified to additionally now embrace YouTube Shorts. This is the e-mail YouTube despatched out:

“Thanks for being a Premium Lite member. Premium Lite gives fewer interruptions so you possibly can watch extra of the YouTube you’re keen on,” YouTube mentioned in its electronic mail to Premium Lite subscribers (through the TWiT.community forum). “We’re writing to let you realize that starting 30 June 2025, advertisements might seem on Shorts, along with music content material and whenever you search or browse. Most movies will proceed to stay ad-free.”

Free trial: 1-month free trial
Adverts: Most content material ad-free
Downloads and background play: No

YouTube Premium Lite removes most advertisements from YouTube for $8 a month.

Associated

I tested YouTube Premium Lite to see how many ads it really got rid of

YouTube Premium Lite is right here, and it shocked me.

It was too good to final

Will YouTube Premium Lite worsen over time?

YouTube / Pocket-lint

Whereas YouTube introducing advertisements on Shorts for Premium Lite subscribers is not the worst factor that would’ve presumably occurred, it is nonetheless a bummer for Premium Lite customers who take pleasure in looking Shorts.

…what worries me is that the service is not even six months previous within the US and YouTube is already making modifications to it.

For those who’re unfamiliar with YouTube Premium Lite, it is a extra inexpensive various to YouTube Premium, which gives fewer advantages. Notably, Premium Lite does not embrace background play, offline downloads, or YouTube Music. Primarily, all YouTube Premium Lite does is decrease the quantity of advertisements customers expertise. For those who do not watch music content material on YouTube or Shorts, for probably the most half, you will not expertise any advertisements with Premium Lite. This makes it a stable various for customers who do not look after any of the additional options Premium gives, and are simply all in favour of seeing fewer advertisements.

Even with the modifications being made, Google nonetheless says that “most movies will stay ad-free,” which remains to be the case. However what worries me is that the service is not even six months previous within the US and YouTube is already making modifications to it. It virtually seems like its preliminary providing was too good to be true.

…I concern YouTube will not give you the option to withstand the urge so as to add extra advertisements to Premium Lite sooner or later.

YouTube Premium Lite presently prices $8 a month within the US and YouTube Premium prices $14 a month, so it does provide fairly good worth if you happen to’re trying to free your self from the ad-infestation that YouTube has change into over the previous a number of years. Nevertheless, my greatest concern is that that is simply the beginning of the modifications YouTube will make to Premium Lite over time, to entice extra individuals to go along with its dearer Premium tier as a substitute.

I hope I am mistaken, and this variation to Premium Lite is only a easy course correction being completed by YouTube, and that Premium Lite will stay the way in which it’s now for the foreseeable future. However I concern YouTube will not give you the option to withstand the urge so as to add extra advertisements to Premium Lite sooner or later, to make it much less of an ad-free tier, and extra of a restricted advertisements tier.

YouTube Premium Lite is presently obtainable within the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the UK, Australia, Germany, and Thailand. Adverts will start showing on Shorts for YouTube Premium Lite subscribers on June 30, 2025.