Starting August 11, YouTube is rolling out Premium Lite in Vietnam, priced at VND49,000 (about $1.90) per month when subscribed to via the web, or VND65,000 ($2.50) per month when purchased through the app.

The plan is a lower-cost alternative to the full YouTube Premium subscription, targeting users who mainly watch regular videos and want to see fewer ads.

Premium Lite allows users to watch most videos on the platform without ads. The plan also supports downloading videos for offline viewing and playing videos in the background.

However, Premium Lite does not remove ads from all content on YouTube. Users may still encounter advertising while watching certain types of content, particularly music videos and content containing promotional elements.

Its features and the range of content available without ads may also differ from the full YouTube Premium plan.

The launch of Premium Lite in Vietnam is part of YouTube's plan to expand the service to all countries where YouTube Premium is available.

YouTube has previously introduced the plan in several markets at a lower price than its standard Premium subscription.

According to YouTube, Premium Lite also provides an additional source of revenue for creators. Subscription revenue is distributed based on watch time and content views.

YouTube said creators of long-form videos receive 55% of allocated revenue, while the share for Shorts creators is 45%.

YouTube said creators may earn more revenue when viewers switch to Premium than when those users watch ad-supported videos.

YouTube raises monetization eligibility thresholds

Alongside the expansion of Premium Lite, YouTube also announced changes to eligibility requirements for new creators seeking to join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).

Starting February 1, 2027, creators who want to begin earning revenue from advertising and subscriptions will need at least 8,000 eligible watch hours over 12 months or 20 million Shorts views within 90 days.

The current requirements are 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours over 12 months, or 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views within 90 days.

That means the watch-time requirement for long-form videos will double, while the Shorts threshold will rise from 10 million to 20 million views.

The new rules will not affect creators who are already members of YPP.

YouTube will also require channels to maintain at least 10 million Shorts views within 90 days to continue receiving revenue from the Shorts Creators Pool.

Channels that fall below this threshold will remain in the partner program and can continue monetizing long-form videos. Shorts revenue will resume once a channel again reaches the 10-million-view threshold.

YouTube said the changes come as the platform now records more than 200 billion Shorts views per day, while more than one billion hours of content are watched on TVs each day.

Du Lam