YouTube has begun piloting a “Premium Lite” subscription that lets you eliminate ads for a more affordable price. The new tier, currently available in some parts of Europe, costs just €6.99 a month. But it doesn’t include background playback or other benefits available with a full Premium plan.
YouTube is one of the few websites that continually finds news ways to circumvent browser-based content blockers. If you really want to get rid of ads in your videos, the best way to do it is to sign up for a YouTube Premium subscription, priced at $11.99 a month.
But some YouTube users now have a more affordable way to avoid ads.
YouTube Premium Lite on trial in Europe
YouTube’s new Premium Lite subscription is now available for testing in a number of countries throughout Europe, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. It was first spotted by a user on ResetEra, then confirmed by The Verge.
Premium Lite costs €6.99 a month (or the local equivalent) and removes all ads from your YouTube videos. It works on the web as well as inside the official YouTube apps for Android, iOS, smart TVs, and game consoles — so long as you sign in using the same Google account.
Unlike a full Premium account, Premium Lite does not include other benefits, like background playback on mobile, the ability to download videos for offline viewing, and YouTube Music. Given that it lacks so much, yet costs around 60% of a full Premium subscription, it’s not a particularly great deal.
Premium Lite could appeal to those who already subscribe to another music service and aren’t interested in YouTube Music or the other benefits of full Premium plan. And we should note that it’s still in testing; it could change before it rolls out to everyone — or it could be scrapped altogether.
