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YouTube Premium is getting a huge price hike in over a dozen countries, sparking user backlash. Some countries are experiencing hikes between 30% and 50% (mas.to)

submitted 2 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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YouTube Premium users across the globe are facing significant price hikes as Google increases subscription costs in over a dozen countries. This follows earlier price jumps in various regions, including the United States last summer. The latest increases vary by region, with some countries experiencing hikes between 30% to 50%. For instance, in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy, the Family plan will rise from €18 to €26 starting November, while the individual plan will increase by €2 to €14.

Countries affected by these changes include Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, UAE, Switzerland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark. Although most Reddit reports are from European users, the price hikes also impact the Middle East, Colombia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. YouTube had already raised its subscription prices in India by 15–20% in late August.

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[+] kameecoding@lemmy.world -13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Wouldnt that just cause them to increase prices more? Since now someone else has to pay for the bandwith you use?

Thus what you are doing is using your technological know how to offload your costs onto less technical users who can't adblock.

The morally correct thing to do is to stop watching youtube and/pr go to a paid platform that's an alternative, like floatplane or nebula and support the creators there, isn't it? But let's be honest, we all know you just want adfree youtube videos for free.

[–] elliot_crane@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

I’m ok with all of that. It furthers my goal of hitting the platform back in response to their predatory marketing practices and de facto monopoly. Also, I do support creators outside of youtube. In short, I don’t feel bad about any of this.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That might be their response, yes. But they also have some other options:

improve the service to be worth the cost
reduce the cost to increase Premium subs - I have a price in mind, and they're way above it
add an a la carte alternative to Premium (i.e. pay per video or something)
cut expenses, such as by reducing the amount of useless videos that are uploaded (i.e. small charge to upload videos, recur every year; allow some amount for free)

But no, raising prices is the easier "solution." I'm willing to pay (I pay for Nebula, after all), I'm just not willing to pay what they're asking for the service as-is.

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Okay, so if you are not willing to pay that's entirely reasonable, you can then not use the service or use it with ads.

Dont get me wrong, I do have pirated movies and shows, it has reasons like scrubs they changed the music, community they took down an episode for no reason, but that shit doesn't cost anyone anything I dont use extra bandwith or anything

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

There's a third option: use the service with an ad blocker. The way I see it, that's not piracy, it's a TOS violation, and they're free to block me from their site. But as long as I'm not bypassing copyright protections or something, it's not piracy. I think using something like Invidious or other FEs could constitute piracy, but just using their website w/ an ad-blocker isn't.

I'm willing to pay (again, I pay for Nebula), but I'm not willing to pay the price they're asking for.

[–] Tja@programming.dev -4 points 2 months ago

Prepare for the downvotes!