YouTube may be taking a page from Netflix’s password crackdown with a new initiative it’s testing out to drive more subscribers to YouTube Premium with a small percentage of users globally.
The test was first reported on June 28 by a Reddit user. YouTube Premium offers users the option of turning off their ad-blockers and watching the ads or switching to ad-blockers. After three YouTube videos, they will be blocked from watching any more content if they choose option C and do nothing.
Are you willing to pay for YouTube Premium?
Although people may complain, YouTube is in the right here, much like Netflix. Paying for content with wallets or eyes is a reasonable request.
An individual can subscribe to YouTube Premium for $11.99 a month or $119.00 for a family. YouTube Music is also included in YouTube Premium. Considering how many videos YouTube fans consume each hour, the cost per hour is probably a bargain.
Despite confirming that this is a “small experiment,” YouTube did not provide much information about how many people are participating or their location.
Over 80 million subscribers joined YouTube Premium between late 2021 and late 2022. From the outside, it sounds great, but YouTube staff probably stew over the fact that it’s a drop in the bucket when compared with the subscriber base of over 2.6 billion.
Increasingly, companies are tightening their belts (or, more accurately, tightening the belts of their users), so this shouldn’t surprise anyone, but we’ll be watching to see if YouTube expands this out from its current trial.
