Google is testing a new type of YouTube subscription, in a limited number of countries: here's how YouTube Premium Lite works and what it offers users.
Billions of users around the world access YouTube every day, a platform that for many has become the new television. And, just like television, for several years now it has been offering free videos in exchange for watching one or more advertisements. For many users, this is too much advertising, which is why some have decided to subscribe to YouTube Premium.
YouTube Premium also offers other features in addition to the absence of advertising, but it doesn't cost cheap at all: 11.99 euros per month, which is practically as much as an average subscription on Netflix and more than a subscription to Disney+, but without all the high-level content present on these two platforms. Now, however, something new is coming: Google has in fact launched a new type of subscription, called YouTube Premium Lite. As the name implies, it's a "light" version of YouTube Premium: it costs less, but it doesn't have all the additional features. This subscription, however, is still being tested on a small number of markets.
YouTube Premium Lite: how much does it cost and what does it offer
The monthly cost of a YouTube Premium Lite subscription is 6.99 euros, just over half the cost of YouTube Premium. At this price, YouTube Premium Lite offers just one more feature than free YouTube: the ability to watch videos without commercials of any kind (neither pre-video nor during videos).
Stop: YouTube Premium Lite doesn't offer any other benefits for users. There's no option to watch videos in the background, no option to download them, nor is YouTube Music included in the price.
Many, therefore, wonder if this test will be successful since for about half the price of regular YouTube Premium with YouTube Premium Lite we have well less than half the benefits.
YouTube Premium Lite: when it arrives and where
At the moment, YouTube Premium Lite is an experiment limited to very few countries, all in northern Europe: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
Google has not yet clarified whether this new subscription will remain available for all or if it is only temporary, perhaps to stimulate the transition to YouTube Premium in these countries. Nor has Google said if the test will be extended elsewhere, so we can't tell you for sure if YouTube PRemium Lite will also arrive in Italy and when.