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Google is testing a new two-person plan for YouTube Premium that sits between the individual and family plans, Moneycontrol reports.
The two-person tier is currently available for select users in India, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Like Spotify's Premium Duo, the plan would help couples, roommates, or any two individuals in the same household reduce subscription costs while maintaining separate accounts, the report adds. The offer is only valid for new users ages 13 and up.
"We're experimenting with new ways to provide greater flexibility and value to our YouTube Premium subscribers, including offering a two-person Premium plan option, allowing two people to share a subscription at a reduced cost," YouTube tells Moneycontrol.
In India, the new two-person plan costs Rs 219 per month (~$2.60), with the individual plan at Rs 149 (~$1.77) and the family plan at Rs 299 (~$3.55). If YouTube expands the testing to the US and follows a similar pricing strategy, the two-person plan could cost around $18-$19 per month; two separate individual subscriptions cost $28 a month.
YouTube's pricing in other regions seem attractive, but if you plan to use a VPN to get cheaper rates, that won't work. The company began cracking down on such users last year, cancelling all Premium plans purchased outside a buyer's determined region.
YouTube Premium lets you watch videos without ads, download them to watch offline, and play them in the background. It also includes YouTube Music Premium, which provides ad-free music and background play in the YouTube Music app or website. In March, Google launched a Premium Lite tier, which offers a stripped-down version for $7.99 per month.
"Through all this growth, subscriptions are now a big part of the [YouTube] business," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an April earnings call. "We continue to diversify subscription options, recently expanding our Premium Lite pilot to the US, giving users a new way to enjoy most videos on YouTube ad-free."