YouTube has quietly raised prices for its Premium users in some countries after announcing a global crackdown on adblockers.
The world’s biggest video-sharing platform has raised prices for YouTube Premium users in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Chile, Germany, Poland, and Turkey.
Users in the US are already paying more for their individual Premium subscriptions after YouTube increased the price in July to $13.99 a month.
More regions are certainly on the way, with the price increase happening in a “piecemeal fashion” across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America, as reported by 9to5Google, which first spotted the change.
In Australia, it represents the “first ever price increase,” according to search giant Google, which owns YouTube.
The price increase applies to individual, family, and student plans for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium.
Existing subscribers will start seeing the new pricing with their next billing cycle, but the company said it would make concessions for users in some regions currently paying a lower rate by extending that pricing for at least another three months.
In an email to customers, YouTube said it didn’t make the decision “lightly” but argued that the price increase would allow it to “continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube.”
The price hike comes after YouTube launched a global crackdown on adblockers, intent on making sure paying for its service is the only way to go ad-free on the platform.
YouTube is increasingly competing with streaming services like Netflix, Disney, and Apple for viewership, and all of these platforms have recently raised their subscription fees.
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