YouTube is piloting a new subscription tier with select users in India, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong that lets them share their Premium or Music Premium membership with another household member, Moneycontrol has learnt.
This move comes amid the Google-owned video platform's growing focus on subscriptions as a potential moneymaker in its effort to diversify beyond advertising.
The two-person YouTube Premium subscription tier is being offered in India at a monthly price of Rs 219, while the Music Premium subscription tier is available at Rs 149 per month during the pilot, Moneycontrol has learnt. Both the members must be 13 years or older, have a Google account, and be a part of the same Google family group.
YouTube has confirmed this development to Moneycontrol “We're experimenting with new ways to provide greater flexibility and value to our YouTube Premium subscribers, including offering a two-person Premium plan option, allowing two people to share a subscription at a reduced cost.” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.
YouTube Premium provides subscribers an ad-free experience along with the ability to play videos in the background and download videos for offline playback. It also provides them early access to some of the experimental features on the platform. Meanwhile, Music Premium offers similar features, but just for music content.
In India, YouTube Premium offers monthly plans at Rs 89 (Student), Rs 149 (Individual), and Rs 299 (Family). Music Premium plans start at Rs 59 for students, Rs 119 for individuals, and Rs 179 for families.
The two-member plan will likely be beneficial for couples, roommates, or any two individuals sharing a household who are looking to reduce subscription costs while maintaining separate accounts. Music streaming giant Spotify also offers a similar plan, called Duo, to its customers.
In recent years, Google has taken several steps to grow YouTube's subscription revenue, including a global crackdown on adblockers and hiking the prices of its premium subscription across many markets. In India, prices were increased in August 2024 by 12 percent to 58 percent, depending on the tier.
"Subscriptions are a big part of (YouTube's) business. We continue to diversify our subscription options, recently expanding our Premium Lite pilot to the US, giving users a new way to enjoy most videos on YouTube ad-free," Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, recently told in the company's earnings call in April 2025.
Through Premium Lite, viewers will be able to watch ad-free videos across various categories such as gaming, comedy, cooking or learning. They will, however, see ads on music content, music videos, and Shorts. Consumers will also not be able to play videos in the background or download them for offline viewing. The plan is currently available in Australia, Germany, and Thailand, apart from the United States.
In March, YouTube announced that it crossed over 125 million subscribers globally across Music and Premium services. Overall, Alphabet has surpassed 270 million paid subscriptions, with YouTube and Google One as key drivers, Pichai said during the earnings call in April.
Google typically does not report the overall revenues of YouTube each quarter, instead providing only the platform's advertising sales figures. However, in October 2024, Pichai mentioned that YouTube's total revenue surpassed $50 billion for the first time over the past four quarters.
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