With numerous recorded price increases, YouTube Premium is set for another price hike in a number of European regions.
According to numerous reports on Reddit (h/t Android Police), YouTube Premium price increases of up to 50% are set to come to individual and family plans in a number of regions.
In Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Ireland, a YouTube Family plan is ballooning from €17.99 to €25.99, which is a major price increase, with a yearly plan now sitting at a whopping €311.88. An individual plan is also going from €12 to €14 in all those regions listed.
Top comment by Justin Landis
I can't imagine this is good for business.
You are paying more for the same service for no particular reason. At least not a reason that makes sense to the users.
If current customers feel that the price has gone too high, they still leave. If the service gets a reputation for always raising its prices, new members will not join.
Will YouTube creators be getting a bigger payout because of this price hike?
This whole business model is unsustainable and gives the users a massive sense of insecurity. So much of what we do now online is subscription based. We've been hooked on the convenience, now we can't get off it. It's the dealer who provides free samples to the neighborhood situation.
Imagine if YouTube were a restaurant or supermarket. If the cost of a meal went up 30-50 percent as it will in some markets for this price hike, there would be fewer customers even though it's a one time payment. But this is a monthly recurring cost. It hits even harder.
It feels that much of our modern lives have become based on the cable subscription model. You are forced into a subscription so that you can enjoy a base service but then are required to overpay for the base service because many things that you don't need are thrown in with the subscription to "justify" the costs. Some people want only YouTube music, some people want YouTube, some people want both. Google could bundle these separately or offer a reduced yearly contract as it does with Google one, but alas...
That’s not all. In Switzerland, the YouTube Family price is set to jump even further from 23.90 CHF to 33.90 CHF per month. Individual plans are also moving from 16 CHF to 18 CHF. Swedish YouTube Premium prices are also not safe. A Family plan is set to go from 179 SEK to 279 SEK.
This move comes shortly after other global regions were hit with a similarly extensive price increase. Subscribers in the some Asian and Middle Eastern areas were informed of price changes arriving in late-August.
What’s more painful is that these prices could actually end up being even higher on iOS. Due to the billing fees on the App Store, Google charges slightly higher monthly fees for those using Apple’s storefront billing system.
These price changes will take effect in November 2024, by which time you’ll have to accept the fees or simply walk away from the increasingly expensive streaming platform. While YouTube Premium plans do come with YouTube Music access, the steadily upward climb in cost, increased ads in the free tiers, alongside a huge crackdown on adblockers, isn’t doing the service any favors.
More on YouTube:
- YouTube for Android getting a transparent status bar
- YouTube getting smart TV updates, Communities with posts, and more
- YouTube for Android TV frustratingly fuses the ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ buttons
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