Australian YouTube users are set to receive a new, lower-priced version of YouTube’s ad-free paid video service.

The package, dubbed “premium lite,” will be announced soon for Australia, as well as other markets including the US and Germany.

At present, YouTube’s premium service in Australia is free for the first one month that a user signs up to the service. It then costs A$16.99 per month for the Individual plan.

A Family plan, which allows you to add up to five members in your household, costs A$32.99 per month. The Student tier is currently its cheapest and costs A$10.49 per month.

“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 said in a statement, reported Bloomberg.

“We’re hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners’ support.”

 

YouTube has dabbled with the idea of a cheaper Premium Lite version in the past. In 2023, two years after piloting a Premium Lite subscription plan in select countries, YouTube decided to pull the plug on that tier.

But last year, YouTube said that it was testing another version of that tier in Australia. That Premium Lite subscription cost users around A$8.99 per month on the web, around half than the A$16.99 cost for the current full version of Premium.

As the Verge has pointed out, the previous version of Premium Lite which was discontinued in 2023 had no ads on YouTube and YouTube kids.

 

The version which began to be tested last year had limited ads instead. In a footnote, YouTube says that ads may appear on “music content and Shorts” and users might see “non-interruptive ads when you search and browse.”

The new version of Premium Lite also doesn’t offer the ability to download and play videos offline, or the possibility of listening to videos in the background, which also weren’t available with the old Premium Lite.

Whether YouTube decides to offer a completely ad-free experience on its new Premium Lite version, or a mostly ad-free experience is yet to be confirmed.

Traditionally, ad revenue has made up the bulk of YouTube’s earnings. The introduction of Premium Lite could be a way of YouTube to gradually shift and make subscription income a larger focus of its revenue model.

YouTube’s decision to offer a cheaper subscription model comes as major streaming platforms including Netflix and Disney+ have been steadily increasing their prices.

Earlier this month, Disney+ subscribers in Australia were informed that they will pay $15.99 per month, a $2 increase from the $13.99 per month fee that they are currently paying for the Standard plan, an approximately 14% hike. The Disney+ Premium subscription would also increase from $17.99 per month to $20.99 per month.