Google has a new YouTube Premium tier for US-based customers. YouTube Premium Lite is now available in the United States, offering subscribers "a new, more affordable way to enjoy most videos on YouTube ad-free" for $7.99 per month.
YouTube Premium Lite is $6 cheaper than the standard YouTube Premium subscription. To make the service more affordable (or upsell the more expensive plan, depending on how you look at it), Google removed several key features, such as the ability to download videos for offline views and background play. Also, YouTube Premium Lite does not include access to YouTube Music.
The main upsell of the cheaper YouTube Premium Lite tier is the ad-free experience. Sort of ad-free. While the $13.99 YouTube Premium plan removes all ads, YouTube Premium Lite only removes them on certain videos. By "most videos," Google means gaming, fashion, beauty, news, podcasts, and more. Therefore, you may still see ads when watching videos on YouTube.
Here is how Google describes YouTube Premium Lite in the official announcement:
We’ve been testing Premium Lite to make sure we have the right balance of features and benefits for those viewers who want to watch most videos ad-free - whether it’s gaming, comedy, cooking or learning. For users who want ad-free music on YouTube and YouTube Music, plus offline and background play, we recommend the Premium plan.
YouTube Premium Lite is now available to users in the United States and in a limited pilot in Thailand, Germany, and Australia. All customers in those three countries will get access to YouTube Premium Lite in the coming weeks.
In addition to launching YouTube Premium Lite in the United States, Google announced that YouTube Music and Premium now have over 125 million subscribers (including free trials).
5 Comments - Add comment