YouTube Premium to Increase by 43%... Telecom Carrier Bundle Fees "Temporarily Maintained"

Although the price of YouTube Premium in South Korea has increased, the prices of YouTube Premium bundled plans offered by mobile carriers are expected to remain unchanged for the time being.

On the 8th, YouTube Korea announced the price increase via email and customer service. The monthly subscription fee for YouTube Premium membership will rise by 43%, from the previous 10,450 KRW to 14,900 KRW. Existing subscribers will see the new price applied 30 days after this announcement, and long-term members who subscribed before September 2020 will have the price increase temporarily deferred until their payment date in April next year.

[Image source=Pixabay]

The three major telecom companies offer plans that bundle YouTube Premium services. KT allows subscribers of the '5G Choice' plan, and LG Uplus offers YouTube Premium as one of the benefits for '5G Premier' plan subscribers. Subscription services are also available. SK Telecom's 'T Wooju', KT's 'OTT Subscription', and LG Uplus's 'Yudok' provide YouTube Premium monthly subscriptions at discounted prices.

The YouTube Premium bundled services from the three telecom companies are expected to maintain pre-increase prices for the time being. SKT stated, "We are in discussions about reflecting the price increase. No decisions have been made yet." KT said, "There is no change to the 5G Choice plan, and although the OTT subscription service, which allows subscribing to YouTube Premium as a standalone service, has reflected the price increase, the final discounted price (9,450 KRW) remains unchanged." LG Uplus also stated that no decisions have been made.

However, in the long term, price increases for telecom bundled services seem inevitable. Unlike the B2C (business-to-consumer) sector where consumers pay monthly, B2B (business-to-business) contracts are often made for periods such as months or quarters. If there is a remaining contract period signed at the pre-increase price, services may continue to be supplied at the previous price according to the contract terms even after the price increase. Even if the contracted price rises, since consumers are sensitive to telecom fees, it is not easy to immediately reflect the increase in service prices. However, if prices rise significantly in the B2B sector as well, reflecting the increase will eventually become unavoidable.

An industry insider said, "Because consumers are sensitive to telecom fees, telecom companies will absorb as much of the price increase as possible, and if absorption is impossible, the increase will be applied."