YouTube Premium Lite offers ad-free viewing at a lower price

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Google is experimenting with a more affordable premium subscription tier on YouTube that offers ad-free viewing without other YouTube Premium features like offline downloads or background play. The new “Premium Lite” plan was spotted by a user on ResetEra, and YouTube later confirmed the test offer in a statement provided to The Verge. Premium Lite is currently being tested in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

“In the Nordic and Benelux countries (excluding Iceland), we are testing a new offer to give users more choices: Premium Lite costs €6.99 per month (or local equivalent per month) and includes ad-free YouTube videos,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. statment. In comparison, YouTube’s current Premium plan costs around €11.99 per month in Europe.

“We’re testing a new offering to give users more options”

Premium Lite includes ad-free viewing across the main YouTube web app, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and game consoles, as well as in the YouTube Kids app. However, it doesn’t include any YouTube Music benefits like ad-free listening, and it doesn’t include other Premium features like background playback (when you want to switch to another app while still listening to audio from a YouTube video), or offline downloads.

Speaking as someone who hates the amount of ads on YouTube, but isn’t very interested in other Premium features like offline downloads, Premium Lite sounds like a tempting proposition. But at its current price, it costs about 60 percent of the price of a regular premium subscription, while offering only about a quarter of its benefits. YouTube says the current subscription is in beta, and it’s considering rolling out more plans based on audience feedback.

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