You won’t find many complaining about YouTube Premium ’round these parts. It’s an incredibly good deal — ad-free viewing, video downloads, and even a music subscription — for R82/m. Sure, that’ll go up eventually, but in the meantime, we’re eating well. We’ve heard whispers of a cheaper Premium Lite for months, and ignored it.
The Lite at the end of the tunnel
That might have something to do with YouTube Premium Lite being reserved for a select few countries. That’s no longer the case, after YouTube officially brought the new plan to South Africa. The plan is decidedly affordable at R50/m — a 39% reduction of full Premium’s cost.
You will, of course, have to make a few concessions to get the most out of the new subscription. Lite users still have access to background play and offline downloads, which is a start. Ad-free viewing is included, which is arguably the biggest component when deciding whether to hand over money to Google.
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Kinda. The features, including ad-free viewing, have been kneecapped to ensure Lite isn’t too good. Music videos are off the table entirely, meaning Lite users get adverts there. They also can’t close their screens, and can’t download music videos. Ever. Ads are liable to appear in Shorts, too, which is a bit of a bummer for short-form fanatics.
But if you can say goodbye to ad-free music videos and don’t mind an ad appearing in search and Shorts every once in a while, Premium Lite is the way to go. If YouTube Music is a must and you’d rather never see an ad again… Premium proper is recommended. Unfortunately, there’s no Lite Family plan, so you’ll have to go it alone.
