YouTube Tests Cheaper 'Premium Lite' Subscription for Ad-Free Viewing

YouTube is piloting a new cheaper subscription tier in Europe called "Premium Lite," which offers ad-free viewing minus YouTube Premium's other features.

youtube premium lite
First spotted by a user on ResetEra and subsequently confirmed by Google, the "Lite" plan means users who aren't interested in offline downloads or background playback can still enjoy YouTube videos on web and mobile app without being interrupted by ads.

A YouTube spokesperson told The Verge:

"In Nordics and Benelux (except for Iceland), we're testing a new offering to give users even more choice: Premium Lite costs €6.99/month (or local equivalent per month) and it includes ad-free videos on YouTube."

A standard YouTube Premium plan costs around €11.99/£11.99 a month in Europe and $11.99 in the United States, and includes ad-free viewing on web, mobile app, smart TVs and consoles, as well as ad-free YouTube Music listening, background playback, and offline downloads.

As The Verge notes, the "Lite" option costs around 60% of the price of a Premium plan but only offers a quarter of the features. However, YouTube says that the subscription plan is still in an experimental phase, and that it could still roll out more plans to gauge user feedback.

Tag: YouTube

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Top Rated Comments

Le0M Avatar
50 months ago
They should stop asking to go premium every few minutes. That would be good news.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adammusic Avatar
50 months ago
Just make YouTube premium cheaper.
Or make offline downloads cost additional.
I don’t want ads and i want background playback.
Don’t use offline downloads at all.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cheesygrin Avatar
50 months ago
Is it just me that really has an issue with YouTube charging extra for background playback, which is essentially an operating system feature, not an app feature?

£12 per month for this and no ads is too high. I trialled it and then cancelled. I would pay £6 pm, but only if background playback was also added.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xyz01 Avatar
50 months ago
This is interesting.

Ad-free viewing of videos is what I'm interested in, but the "normal" price includes Youtube Music. I also have music streaming elsewhere, I have no need for that from Youtube - so getting rid of that to reduce the price would be my first pick.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Villarrealadrian Avatar
50 months ago
Or you can just download Brave Browser and never see an ad again for free!
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
50 months ago
Or you just „fly“ to Turkey and pay less than a cheese burger for the premium subscription ?.
Premium Lite. What a stupid name.

by the way, how does Google still get away with a more expensive subscription price via Apple IAP? I thought this wasn’t allowed and that’s why Netflix stopped signing up from iOS all together
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)