YouTube is currently testing a new and more affordable yet premium subscription plan that lets you enjoy YouTube videos ad-free. YouTube Premium Lite, unlike other YouTube Premium plans, doesn’t come with any additional benefits like downloads, offline downloads or background playback.
Spotted first by a Resetera user, the new YouTube Premium Lite tier is available in a handful of European countries right now including - Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Unlike the normal tier that costs €11.99 or $14.26, the YouTube Premium Lite comes is available at a monthly commitment of €6.99 ($8.32 or Rs. 616) which is similar to a student tier in these countries. Interestingly, this price is cheaper than the Basic tier of Netflix which is priced at €7.99 ($9.50 or Rs.705) in the same region.
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A YouTube spokesperson confirmed YouTube Lite to The Verge in a statement that read, “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.”
With Premium Lite, YouTube is back to basics and is looking to offer users a choice of options. Users can enjoy ad-free video content on all the platforms including -Web, Android, iOS, smart TVs, and even consoles.
As mentioned above, YouTube Premium Lite is a barebones product that only offers you ad-free YouTube and YouTube Kids content to watch sans any bells and whistles. The features like background play, YouTube Music or offline downloads are not available under this tier.
Though YouTube hasn’t revealed its plans of making this tier available to a global audience, however, in price-sensitive markets like India it could see massive success. Here while YouTube offers a premium tier in monthly or a quarterly payment mode only. Streaming apps like Netflix’s mobile-only plan which is available at Rs. 200 per month has been well received and even Amazon offers Quarterly plans for users who do not want to pay the entire subscription fee in one go.
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