Google’s video platform YouTube is testing a “cheap” light subscription, where cheap seems relative to us in this case.
If you have ever felt the urge to take out a YouTube subscription and you are up against yet another expensive streaming subscription, there is hope. A YouTube Premium subscription, in fact, normally costs just a tad more than Netflix (and quite a bit more than Amazon Prime Video).
What most people are interested in is buying off the ads that show up regulary. And for that, more than a tenner a month is quite a lot. For that ten you can also download YouTube videos, but the downloaded material is only usable within the app. And thus not very interesting. You also get access to YouTube Music, although a specialized music streaming service has more to offer in that area.
One last “must-have” feature remains: the option of picture-in-picture playback, or a minimized video stamp that you can watch while doing something else. In fact, this is a standard feature of most (mobile) operating systems, but Google has blocked this option in the standard version of YouTube. It is a bit childish, but that’s how it goes in this world apparently.
Not really cheap actually..
The YouTube Lite subscription costs just over half as much as the Premium one. For that price you only get ad-free viewing with the video streamer, all other options do not work.
Most of the ads can be skipped after a few seconds, so they don’t really cause much trouble. If Google had asked €1.50 per month for this, it would have been a lot more interesting. Now it’s a bit of a waste of money. For a similar amount you can watch Amazon Prime Movies, where you can optionally save movies locally. And don’t see any ads anyway.
Something similar applies to Apple TV+. Netflix is a few Euros more expensive, but immediately has much more pro-content to offer. So whether this is the holy grail for YouTube? Well, that choice is yours. At least, in the countries where testing is currently underway: Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and Norway.
