YouTube Increases Prices of its Premium Service in India

Video streaming service YouTube has increased the price of its Premium service in the country. The rates of all subscription plans of this ad-free service have been increased. These include individual, family and student subscription plans. In this service, users get features like streaming of videos without advertisements, facility to watch videos or listen to music in the background and Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.

It is not known whether existing subscribers of YouTube Premium will get a grace period to pay the new rates. The rate of its individual plan for a single user has been increased from Rs 129 per month to Rs 149 per month. Users with family plan will have to pay Rs 299 per month. In this plan, this service can be accessed by up to five users. Earlier its price was Rs 189.

Its student plan has been increased from Rs 79 per month to Rs 89. The rates of its prepaid plans have also been increased. One month trial is available for new users. American technology company Google Last year, YouTube, controlled by YouTube, was warned by the central government about deepfakes. Some social media platforms, including YouTube, were told that deepfakes and posting content that spreads obscenity or misinformation are prohibited under the country’s law.

Under these rules, content that is harmful to children, obscene or imitating another person is banned. With the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), cases of making fake videos of politicians and celebrities have increased. Such videos are called deepfakes. The government is preparing to make new regulations against this. Under these regulations, fines can be imposed on the platforms that create deepfakes and host them. To deal with this problem, regulations related to AI can soon be brought under legal ambit. The country’s AI market is expected to grow to $17 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25-35 percent. In a report by Nasscom and Boston Consulting Group, an organization of software companies, it was said that the reasons behind this growth would be increased expenditure of enterprises on tech and investment in AI.