YouTube is testing a cheaper version of its Premium subscription service, which is focused purely on ad-free viewing.<\/p>\n
The more affordable option was first uncovered by a forum member on Resetera<\/strong><\/a>, who was given the choice of downgrading to YouTube Premium Lite while cancelling their standard Premium subscription in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n YouTube Premium Lite eliminates ads during video viewing across YouTube\u2019s main app on the web, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and gaming consoles.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0 it excludes features such as offline downloads, background playback, and ad-free YouTube Music.<\/p>\n While it offers fewer features, it is more affordable.<\/p>\n In Europe, Premium is charged at \u20ac11.99 a month (R205), while Lite costs \u20ac6.99 (R119) per month, making it about 42% cheaper.<\/p>\n In a statement provided to The Verge<\/strong><\/a>, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed it was currently trialling the new offer\u00a0in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.<\/p>\n YouTube says that Premium Lite was in an experimental phase and that it is considering rolling out more plans based on audience feedback.<\/p>\n A lite version could be an attractive option for those who prefer using other music streaming services and don’t feel they benefit from offline downloads or background playback.<\/p>\n It is unclear if YouTube plans to bring the cheaper product to South Africa, however.<\/p>\n When attempting to access the YouTube Premium Lite page from South Africa, we were presented with a “This offer is not available” message.<\/p>\n South Africa’s standard Premium package is already much more affordable than the equivalent offer in Europe.<\/p>\n YouTube Premium costs R71.99 in South Africa, which is already cheaper than the price of the new Lite service in Europe.<\/p>\n If YouTube were to apply the same discount in South Africa for a Lite version, it could be priced at around R41.99.<\/p>\n That’s the same price as the student plan, which, just like Lite, costs \u20ac6.99 in Europe.<\/p>\n Google is testing a stripped-down version of its YouTube Premium subscription service that only offers ad-free YouTube viewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":391861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[3476,2150,50853],"class_list":["post-408446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-video-streaming","tag-youtube","tag-youtube-premium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408508,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408446\/revisions\/408508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: YouTube revamps videos<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"