YouTube beefs up its $7.99 Premium Lite subscription with background play and downloads

YouTube is expanding its Premium Lite subscription by adding background play and video downloads. This update gives Lite users access to offline viewing and the ability to keep videos playing while using other apps, features previously limited to the standard Premium tier.

Starting today, these upgrades will become available and will reach all Premium Lite markets over the next few weeks. The enhancements are being made in response to subscriber feedback after YouTube widened the Premium Lite pilot to additional regions last year.

With these new features, Premium Lite subscribers now get most videos ad-free, in addition to offline playback and background operation. However, while Premium Lite is closer to the full $12.99 per month Premium plan, some capabilities remain exclusive. Only full Premium removes all ad types, provides ad-free music videos, and enables features such as interface queueing.

Following these improvements, YouTube clarifies that Premium Lite, priced at $7.99 per month, will still show ads in some contexts, such as during search and browsing, even though the majority of video content is ad-free.