Google is already making YouTube Premium Lite worse

Abstract

YouTube is including extra adverts to Premium Lite, particularly concentrating on YouTube Shorts.
Premium Lite gives fewer adverts at $8 a month however lacks different Premium options, like background play.
YouTube Premium Lite continues to be principally ad-free, however how for much longer will that final? It appears 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 different.

YouTube has begun to e-mail Premium Lite prospects to tell them that extra adverts will quickly be showing on YouTube for them (by way of Neowin). Proper now, YouTube Premium Lite provides 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 embody YouTube Shorts. Here is the e-mail YouTube despatched out:

“Thanks for being a Premium Lite member. Premium Lite provides fewer interruptions so you’ll be able to watch extra of the YouTube you like,” YouTube stated in its e-mail to Premium Lite subscribers (by way of the TWiT.community forum). “We’re writing to let that starting 30 June 2025, adverts could seem on Shorts, along with music content material and while you search or browse. Most movies will proceed to stay ad-free.”

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

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

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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 adverts 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 searching Shorts.

…what worries me is that the service is not even six months outdated within the US and YouTube is already making modifications to it.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 different to YouTube Premium, which provides fewer advantages. Notably, Premium Lite does not embody background play, offline downloads, or YouTube Music. Primarily, all YouTube Premium Lite does is decrease the quantity of adverts 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 adverts with Premium Lite. This makes it a strong different for customers who do not look after any of the additional options Premium provides, and are simply curious about seeing fewer adverts.

Even with the modifications being made, Google nonetheless says that “most movies will stay ad-free,” which continues to be the case. However what worries me is that the service is not even six months outdated within the US and YouTube is already making modifications to it. It nearly appears 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 adverts to Premium Lite sooner or later.

YouTube Premium Lite at the moment prices $8 a month within the US and YouTube Premium prices $14 a month, so it does provide fairly good worth when you’re seeking to free your self from the ad-infestation that YouTube has turn into over the previous a number of years. Nevertheless, my largest concern is that that is simply the beginning of the modifications YouTube will make to Premium Lite over time, to entice extra folks to go together with its costlier Premium tier as an alternative.

I hope I am incorrect, and this variation to Premium Lite is only a easy course correction being finished 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 adverts to Premium Lite sooner or later, to make it much less of an ad-free tier, and extra of a restricted adverts tier.

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