Google is piloting a more affordable premium subscription level for YouTube, offering ad-free viewing, but without the other features of the YouTube premium version, such as offline downloads or background playback. A user discovered the new Premium Lite plan, and YouTube subsequently confirmed this test product in a statement. Premium Lite is currently being tested in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
In Northern Europe and the Benelux (except Iceland), we are testing a new product to give users more choices. A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement: The price of Premium Lite is 6.99 euros/month and it includes Watch videos on YouTube without ads. In contrast, YouTube’s existing Premium plan has a monthly fee of about 11.99 Euros in Europe.
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Premium Lite includes the main YouTube app on the web, iOS, Android, smart TVs and game consoles, and ad-free viewing in the YouTube Kids app. However, it does not include any paid content for YouTube music, such as ad-free listening, nor does it include other useful features of Premium, such as background playback, or offline download.
As someone who hates a lot of ads on YouTube, but is not too interested in Premium’s other features such as offline downloads, Premium Lite sounds like a good deal. But according to the current pricing, its price is about 60% of the ordinary Premium subscription, and only provides about a quarter of the advantage. However, YouTube said that the current subscription is in the experimental stage, and it is considering launching more plans based on viewer feedback.
