Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- YouTube Premium Lite offers mostly ad-free video playback but without other Premium perks.
- After first getting started internationally, Premium Lite is now spreading to the US.
- Premium Lite subscribers will pay just $7.99 a month for ad-free YouTube.
There’s arguably no more contentious major streaming service out there than YouTube Premium. While YouTube offers an almost unfathomably deep library of content, its background as a historically free-to-watch platform has made some viewers resistant to the idea of ever paying for YouTube, culminating in a back-and-forth struggle over ad-blocking software that continues to this day. Last year we finally started getting hints that a change might be coming, with YouTube breathing new life into Premium Lite, a more affordable way to remove ads. And now Premium Lite is moving into the spotlight as YouTube announces a major expansion.
Right now, a YouTube Premium subscription will nominally run you $13.99 a month. For that you get all the ad-free YouTube videos you can watch, ad-free access to YouTube Music, and perks like offline viewing.
Today YouTube announces that it’s expanding Premium Lite to users in the US. This costs half as much as regular Premium, or just $7.99 a month, and similarly removes ads from videos. YouTube does add a little asterisk there, clarifying that this is “most” ads, but consider those the exception that proves the rule.
What you won’t get with Premium Lite are YouTube Music, nor any of those value-added playback features. Frankly, though, this sounds exactly like what so many viewers have been interested in. If you’re already a paid Spotify user, for example, the YouTube Music benefit of normal Premium may not have offered a lot of value to you. And similarly, stuff like background playback may not be the sort of feature everyone feels like paying for access to. With half-priced Premium Lite, people who only really cared about the ads have one fewer excuse for not just paying up.
Have you been dealing with YouTube ads for years now and are tempted to finally become a Premium (if only Lite) subscriber? Or are you content to keep fighting away with your ad blocker? Make your case for the best approach down in our comment section.
