After 1,400 hours watched I can't give up this streaming service

Summary

After two years of being subscribed to YouTube Premium, its ad-free experience and extra perks are too hard to turn back on now.
YouTube Premium is extremely valuable if you watch YouTube more than you do any other streaming service, like Netflix or Disney+.
In the past 24 months, I’ve watched nearly 1,400 hours of ad-free videos across all my devices. YouTube Premium Lite is coming soon, but it doesn’t have the perks I want.

I watch YouTube more than any other streaming platform. You name it — Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Max — none of them beat the amount of time I spend watching YouTube videos. I grew up during the YouTube boom in the late 2000s, and at this point, YouTube has been a part of my life longer than it hasn’t. There are so many creators I watch on the platform now, and so many new interesting videos all the time, that leaving seems impossible — and so does canceling YouTube Premium.

Two years ago, I sat in the airport with my friend, preparing for a red-eye flight from Toronto to London. I was downloading movies to watch offline on the flight from Prime Video when my friend asked me: Why don’t you get YouTube Premium to download videos to watch offline? Until then, the thought of subscribing to YouTube Premium had miraculously never crossed my mind. I swiftly listened to his advice, subscribed, and downloaded almost seven hours of YouTube videos to watch on the flight.

Since then, I’ve been a loyal subscriber to YouTube Premium for the past two years. It’s become an essential service for me, and it’s hard to imagine not having it now.

YouTube Premium

What’s included?: YouTube and YouTube Music add-free and in the background
Price: $14 a month
Live TV: No

YouTube Premium Lite could be a game-changer, if only I could sign up for it

YouTube Premium Lite sounds great, but I can’t sign up.

No ads is the icing on the cake

I’ve watched over a thousand hours of ad-free videos

Pocket-lint / YouTube

When I first subscribed to YouTube Premium, the first thing on my mind was getting the ability to download videos for offline use. But it wasn’t until I got home from my trip to London that I realized how amazing it was to have no ads on YouTube anymore. In the past, there were so many instances where I would click off a video because I got an annoyingly long ad. Since I’ve gotten Premium, those days are long gone. And jumping between videos until I find something interesting to watch is so much easier without ads.

Some people argue that Premium is pointless due to ad blockers, but if you don’t use an ad blocker or often access YouTube on a device that doesn’t support them, like your phone or TV, the value of Premium increases significantly. Furthermore, with Premium, you’re supporting YouTube creators who invest their time and resources into producing meaningful content. Additionally, YouTube is taking a strong stance against ad blockers, so very few of them function effectively anymore.

Since subscribing to YouTube Premium, I’ve watched nearly 1,400 hours of ad-free videos.

The value of YouTube Premium truly depends on how much you use the service. I don’t subscribe to cable TV, and YouTube is where I consume the most video content online, so for me, it’s worth paying the $14 monthly fee. The other day, I looked at my YouTube Premium dashboard for the first time this year, and it greeted me with a startling statistic. Since subscribing to YouTube Premium, I’ve watched nearly 1,400 hours of ad-free videos.

To do the math, 1,400 hours of watch time equates to 58 days of watching videos. That means I’ve spent almost two months watching ad-free videos since I first subscribed 24 months ago. That statistic alone made me realize that out of all the other streaming services I subscribe to, notably Disney+ and Prime Video right now, that YouTube was the one I got the most value from, and ironically enough, it’s the service that doesn’t even technically require a subscription to watch it in the first place.

New data suggests Netflix could be just $5 away from collapse

With subscription fatigue at a fever pitch, a new survey indicates that today’s streaming bubble might burst sooner rather than later.

I fear a YouTube Premium price hike

YouTube should add a mid-tier Premium subscription

The last time YouTube Premium got a price hike was in the summer of 2023, when it went up $2 a month from $12 to $14. I was angry at this hike, but I dealt with it since I enjoyed the ad-free experience and the offline downloads, as I traveled quite a bit in 2023 and 2024. However, I fear what will happen if YouTube Premium gets another price hike. If it does, depending on its severity, it will become harder to justify the price of the service. It’s already on the steeper end now, considering it’s just an ad-free experience with a few exclusive quality-of-life features. But a new option will soon be on the table.

YouTube recently announced its revival of Premium Lite, which will soon be available in the US and costs $8 a month. However, for some odd reason, it is not yet available for purchase. Premium Lite is said to offer “most videos ad-free.” Ads will still be on music videos, some Shorts, and the YouTube Music service. The extra features, such as offline downloads and background play, are not included. Essentially, it just offers an ad-free experience without any additional perks.

If you don’t care about the extra premium perks, I would 100 percent recommend Premium Lite to most users.

If you don’t care about the extra premium perks, I would 100 percent recommend Premium Lite to most users. But I rely too much on downloads and background play to forgo them myself. I find background play incredibly useful for listening to videos in the car, like podcasts or other audio content I can’t get on platforms like Spotify. I wish there were a mid-tier YouTube Premium plan that offered ad-free videos, offline downloads, and background play without including YouTube Music. I already subscribe to Spotify and haven’t used YouTube Music during the two years I’ve had ad-free access, so I’m paying for a part of the service I never use. I would gladly switch to a more affordable mid-tier Premium subscription that excludes YouTube Music.

Currently, YouTube Premium is a subscription that I find hard to give up. After watching 1,360 hours of ad-free videos over the past two years, I feel there is no turning back now. The price is steep at $14 per month, and a mid-tier option between Premium Lite and Premium would appeal more to someone like me. But for now, I find the service so valuable that I’ll let YouTube keep taking my money, but admittedly, if YouTube tries to raise the price again, I might have to re-evaluate things.