Several users in European countries have reported being given the option to downgrade their YouTube premium package to a package called Premium Lite. The premium package costs roughly half the price of YouTube Premium and comes with ad-free video viewing across all platforms. Currently, the package is on trial in several European countries including the Netherlands.
I am not sure why YouTube is doing this, to be honest. It could be that they feel the need to diversify the way they monetise their platform. Sure advertisements have worked out great for them in general but it hasn’t been a smooth ride. There have been problems with them placing ads alongside controversial videos, others have complained about there being too many ads and who doesn’t need plan B.
The problem with their current premium package is that it tries to be everything for everyone. Everyone I know these days gets premium because they want an ad-free experience. They don’t care about some of the bells and whistles it comes with such as background viewing and downloads. You just want to make sure that your favourite YouTubers get paid without you having to wade through annoying non-relevant ads.
This might be why YouTube is flirting with this lite package. It just comes with no ads and nothing else. You don’t get ad-free music. You don’t get background plays. It’s just an ad-free experience which is a win-win. The problem with modded apps is while you don’t get ads your creators don’t get paid either.
I am a little hurt that this is getting tested in rich countries while we poor Zimbabweans still don’t have the Premium option. Why is Google not rolling out YouTube Premium Lite to Zimbabwe? They already collect payment for other services including Firebase and many others. It would have been awesome if they trialled these in Africa.
How to take advantage of the offer and why you shouldn’t
Also already pointed out YouTube premium is not available in Zimbabwe but if you are in a territory where it is you can take advantage of the offer. All you need is a VPN and a debit/credit card. The thing though is despite all the facts I pointed to above there is really no need for this package.
This is because, like Spotify, YouTube Premium does have a family package. Depending on where you are located you can pay as little as US$1.50 per month. For South Africa, the family package costs R108.00 per month and you can have up to five family members. In reality, you can pay band together and pay for Premium even if you might technically not be members of the same household.
You still get the usual premium perks including ad-free music, background playing and such. So why the heck would anyone pay for Premium Lite? For me it’s a package that makes little sense. Unless maybe if they are consistently charging about half of what they charge for Premium it will mean the package will be around $3.00 in Africa when premium does come based on what they charge in South Africa.
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