When YouTube first announced its intentions to introduce more tiers under the Premium banner, we hoped it would involve paring YouTube Music away from the service and leave a cheaper, ad-free YouTube experience in its wake. That… seems like too good an idea, entirely ensuring Google would skip it.
Instead, it’s reviving the old ‘Lite’ tier, which experienced a short two-year stay in only a few countries, removing the ads from YouTube (and nothing else) for a cheaper price before it was unceremoniously shut down before it could spread its wings. Now, it’s “testing a different version of Premium Lite,” in Australia, Germany, and Thailand, a Google spokesperson said.
Don’t go towards the Lite
Except somehow, YouTube’s taken what was a half-decent idea and squandered it to – you guessed it – squeeze even more ads onto the platform. That’s according to a report from Android Authority, which first spotted the new tier’s appearance in specific countries before Google confirmed the experiment was underway.
Rather than separating an entirely ad-less YouTube away from YouTube Music (plus other tacked-on features, like offline downloads and higher bitrates), it’s adjusting Lite to offer “limited ads,” for a cheaper monthly subscription — €7\m (R130) in the relevant countries – roughly half of the original plan’s cost.
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Judging by the offering, screenshotted by a Reddit user, Lite makes most videos on the platform ad-free, though ads may still “appear on licensed music content, Shorts, and when you search or browse.” It’s worth mentioning that this new Lite tier would not include access to the original plan’s ‘bonus’ features, like its Music catalogue, background play, or offline downloads.
Whether Lite will ever make it out of this experimental phase and into South Africa (or anywhere for that matter), remains to be seen. It would mean Google charging even less than the current R72/m price – an already cheap offering for a decent flow of content. Should that happen, however, we’ll let you know.