South Korea's antitrust regulator announced Thursday that Alphabet will introduce a cheaper version of YouTube Premium in the country, excluding music streaming components.
This move comes as part of corrective measures voluntarily proposed by Alphabet and approved by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC), following an investigation into alleged unfair bundling of YouTube Music with YouTube Premium services.
The Korea FTC stated that under this decision, Alphabet will launch YouTube Premium Lite - a video-only subscription service featuring ad removal, background play, and offline viewing. Existing YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscriptions will remain available.
According to the Korea FTC, YouTube Premium Lite will be priced at 8,500 won ($5.80) monthly for Android and web users, and 10,900 won for iOS users. This compares to the current 14,900 won for YouTube Premium and 11,990 won for YouTube Music Premium in South Korea.
The new service, already available in 19 other countries, will launch in South Korea at the lowest relative price compared to other major markets.
A Korea FTC official noted: "This pricing will be maintained for at least one year, and any subsequent adjustments will keep it below major overseas market prices for four years."
Alphabet is required to roll out YouTube Premium Lite within 90 days of receiving the approval decision.