YouTube scraps ad-free Premium Lite plan

YouTube is getting rid of its Premium Lite, ad-free low-cost subscription plan, which is available in select territories across Europe.

The Premium Lite offering for €6.99 per month ran for two years, launching in 2021 across Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

The Google-owned video-content platform emailed customers informing them it will no longer be offering the Premium Lite subscription plan after October 25.

In the email, YouTube said: “While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators and partners”.

Premium Lite provides ad-free viewing but excludes features from its Premium and YouTube Music offering including offline downloads and background play.

Customers’ membership on the Premium Lite plan will be cancelled on October 25 and will expire at the end of the billing cycle. As an alternative, subscribers will be given a one-month free trial of YouTube’s Premium plan, including customers who have previously completed the trial.

In July, the company increased the price for its YouTube Premium subscription plan in the US from $11.99 to $13.99 per month and hiked the price for its YouTube Music Premium plan from $9.99 to $10.99 per month. It is expected price increases for YouTube Premium will be extended to other major markets including Canada, UK and Europe.