By Kenrick Cai
March 5, 2025 – 6:48 AM PST
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube on Wednesday rolled out a $7.99 monthly subscription service that is ad-free for most videos, except music, to create a plan to compete more directly with offerings from Netflix (NFLX.O) and Disney (DIS.N).
The “Premium Lite” plan is aimed at customers who rarely watch music videos or listen to music. YouTube is a major player in the streaming music world, but the online video company has a substantial number of watchers who rarely use that function and may gravitate to the new service.
YouTube’s existing $13.99 Premium plan has no ads, including for music, while a separate $10.99 plan offers ad-free music videos and other videos with ads, essentially the reverse of the new plan.
The new…
