It seems that Youtube, Google's video platform is testing its new Premium Lite subscription tier in certain parts of Europe by pushing out the feature to certain users, with the intention of this plan being to increase the appeal for subscribers to drop some cash for the video streaming service.
As per an Engadget report, this new tier will remove advertisements for viewers, whilst other such key YouTube Premium services such as offline downloads, background content consumption and YouTube Music support are not part of this plan.
The report mentions that users in countries like Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden are seeing the Premium Lite tier whilst trying to cancel their YouTube Premium subscriptions.
Google Might Soon Offer YouTube Premium Lite!
Further reports by the Verge mentions that a YouTube spokesperson confirmed the development, stating that the Premium Lite tier was being tested across multiple European countries.
Do note that as of the time of writing this article, YouTube Premium Lite does not show up for Indian users, with a prompt mentioning that the offer is not available in the country as of now.
In case you were wondering, YouTube Premium in the country costs Rs 139 per month whilst the 3-month plan costs Rs 399, with features included being ad-free video playback, offline music and video downloads for the user and access to YouTube Music, coupled with the all-important background content playback.
It is interesting that given as to how YouTube Premium is much cheaper than European countries in India, it will be interesting to see how much it costs in India, since in Europe, it is priced at EUR 11.99 or Rs 1,060 for one month, whilst Premium Lite is being offered at EUR 6.99 or Rs 620.
This move comes at a very interesting time since streaming services are now in a fierce battle against each other to gain more and more subscribers and are slashing prices, with Netflix already having announced a Mobile plan that offers Standard Definition or SD content access on smartphones.
Overall, this plan should be beneficial for both users and the company, since the biggest complaint by users is the ad situation and if this plan offers just ad removal and is priced well in India, it could see a lot of frustrated users make the switch to this new Premium Lite plan, just to end their interrupted content experience.
