YouTube has now launched a new and cheaper ad-free subscription option for consumers in the U.S. to consider. The new Premium Lite plan costs just $7.99 a month, making it almost twice as cheap as the existing Premium subscription.
Technically, Premium Lite was already available in select countries as part of a pilot program. However, today sees the Premium Lite pilot becoming available to users in the U.S. YouTube also confirmed that the pilot will be expanding further in its pilot countries, with all users in Thailand, Germany, and Australia, set to gain access in the coming weeks.
As this is a Lite service, and a much cheaper subscription, those considering signing up to Premium Lite shouldn’t expect a like for like experience as those currently signed up to the standard Premium plan, which will continue to be available in countries where Premium Lite is also now available.
The good news for those primarily concerned with watching ad-free content on YouTube, the Premium Lite plan does include an ad-free streaming experience.
Considering YouTube is also home to a variety of movies that can be watched for free, this means subscribers to Premium Lite can also now watch those free movies without any ads.
It should be noted that YouTube specifically mentions that “most videos” will be available ad-free, highlighting that some won’t be. Most notably, music videos aren’t available to watch without ads on the Premium Lite plan. This isn’t all that surprising when considering that a standard YouTube Premium membership also includes YouTube Music Premium.
Another notably difference is that Premium Lite subscribers won’t have the option of downloading videos to watch offline. Premium Lite subscribers also cannot make use of Background play, the ability to watch videos in a picture-in-picture format while doing something else on the same device.
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