YouTube: 4K videos Will Only Come With Premium Subscription

Anyone who wants to watch YouTube videos in high resolutions might soon need a paid premium subscription. Google is currently testing a feature that will prevent the playback of 4K and 8K content without a membership.

That’s what some Reddit users noticed. While the affected users can select resolutions of up to 1440p in the YouTube app, the text “Premium, tap to upgrade” appears under the previously free options 2160p and 4320p. The higher quality levels can only be activated with a premium subscription. The biggest advantage of YouTube Premium is that videos are played without ads beforehand.

It is also possible to download a clip with the smartphone app and play it in the background. In the EU, the subscription costs just under twelve euros per month. A family membership includes up to six accounts and costs EUR 17.99 per month. Students enrolled at a participating university or college only pay 6.99 euros. The normal individual tariff can also be purchased with an annual payment of 119.99 euros.

More Ads before videos

It remains to be seen whether the search engine group will actually prevent the playback of videos with a higher resolution than 1440p without a subscription in the future. It is also unclear whether the change should only appear on the smartphone or also on the website.

Most users will not be happy about the limitation. However, it is quite conceivable that 4K and 8K content will soon be marketed as a premium feature. Despite user protests, Google has increased the number of ads placed before YouTube videos over the past year and last tested five clips before a video.