YouTube is now incurring more criticism from users in the United States after the company unveiled increased Premium subscription prices combined with longer unskippable TV ads on the platform. The two moves, they added, have prompted wide frustration with some users calling out the platform for putting profits ahead of user experience.
The criticism grew sharper after subscribers got emails on April 10 to report they could expect increased prices on their YouTube Premium subscription. The increase was done quietly too, without a big public announcement from Google or their parent company, Alphabet Inc. Under the new pricing structure, individual subscriptions have increased from $13.99 to $15.99 a month, with “family plans” increasing to $26.99 from $22.99.
Annual subscriptions have surged, in parallel to a price increase to Premium Lite. If you are using the service from Apple devices, it will be more expensive with added App Store fees placing the monthly fee at approximately $20.99. You will have the changes in place in future billing cycles, some beginning as early as mid-May.
And although price increases in themselves may have gotten the press, they also occurred with another controversial release: increasingly intrusive unskippable TV ads. Users watching YouTube on smart TVs and streaming services have noted ad blocks with a duration of 90 seconds to nearly two minutes.
These ad sequences are often comprised of several ads intercut in sequence, replicating television commercial breaks of the past. While YouTube has yet to formally launch these same long ad formats, complaints have been circulating widely on platforms such as Reddit and social. Many users, especially those with devices like Samsung smart TVs, have expressed annoyance saying the viewing experience now resembles cable television, which YouTube dished out earlier and disrupted then.
The company has defended its pricing by stating that the hike was essential “to continue providing great service and features” while being supportive of creators and artists. Yet many say the price does not translate into marked change and the customer has not begun to think of value to compensate and feel it as being very unwisely high.
Critics have also criticized YouTube’s broader moves in recent months, a trend that includes stricter ad blocker rules, changes in monetizing content and adjustments to its algorithms. Coupled with these moves, as well as the new updates it released that followed, has sparked accusations of “corporate greed” and what some observers call a reduction in user-first values.
This approach is viewed from a business perspective as the response to changing pressures. YouTube’s ad revenue is still huge above $40 billion every year but it shows early signs of slowing. At the same time, the company is pouring money into infrastructure, artificial intelligence and content, with estimates of big spending in the next few years.
By leaning more heavily on ads and getting pricier for subscription, YouTube is presumably positioning itself to more regularly grow, and so become a steady revenue stream on a subscription basis. But doing so threatens to alienate its user base, which is increasingly considering alternative options, or even canceling subscription options.
When a problem or a problem grows, so does the user disappointment, and as a result, YouTube has a pressing dilemma: keeping the profitability of its platform with the platform experience that made it the world’s foremost online video-streaming platform.
