YouTube users who have enough of the seemingly ever-increasing bombardment with ads on the site have two official options to deal with it. Subscribe to YouTube Premium, which costs more than a Netflix subscription per month, or pick YouTube Premium Lite, if available.
YouTube Premium Lite is less expensive, at about $8 per month. For that, subscribers get less ads on YouTube. Up until now, that meant no ads in most videos. The notable exceptions were music videos and while searching for or browsing videos on the site.
Google is sending out emails to YouTube Premium Lite subscribers currently that informs them about a notable change coming to their subscription.
From June 30th, 2025 onward, subscribers will also see ads when they watch YouTube Shorts on the platform. Shorts are shorter videos that resemble videos on TikToks, Instagram and other mobile platforms.
Most videos on YouTube remain ad-free, however, according to Google’s email.
Closing Words
More ads for YouTube Premium Lite subscribers makes the plan even less attractive than it is right now. While it may not change much for many subscribers, as Shorts are a love or hate kind of type of videos, it still reduces the attractiveness of the subscription.
Subscribers may cancel at any time. Some might go back to watching YouTube with content blockers instead. It is free, and it improves privacy and security.
Google and other providers continue to test their limits. Years ago, when you paid a service for an ad-free experience, that usually meant entirely ad-free. Now, more and more services continue to charge you for a subscription and still show you ads. YouTube Premium Lite, Netflix, Disney+ and many more have introduced plans that do just that.
Now You: what is your take on all of this? Do you have a YouTube Premium subscription or another subscription that still shows ads to you when you access content?