You may quickly have to purchase YouTube Premium to look at 4K YouTube movies, a brand new consumer take a look at suggests.

In response to a Reddit thread (opens in new tab) highlighted on Twitter by leaker Alvin (opens in new tab), a number of non-Premium YouTube customers have reported seeing 4K decision (and better) video choices restricted to YouTube Premium subscribers on their iOS gadgets. For these people, movies are at present solely obtainable to stream in as much as 1440p (QHD) decision.

The obvious experiment solely appears to be affecting a handful of YouTube customers for now, nevertheless it suggests proprietor Google is toying with the thought of implementing a site-wide paywall for entry to high-quality video sooner or later.

So, after testing as much as 12 advertisements on YouTube for non-Premium customers, now some customers reported that additionally they need to get a Premium account simply to look at movies in 4K. pic.twitter.com/jJodoAxeDpOctober 1, 2022

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It’s no secret that Google has been looking for new methods to monetize its YouTube platform in latest months. In September, the corporate launched 5 unskippable advertisements for some YouTube customers as a part of a separate take a look at – an sudden growth that, naturally, didn’t go down nicely with a lot of the YouTube neighborhood. 

A decision paywall appears a extra palatable method from Google. Whereas annoying, the change is not more likely to provoke the identical degree of ire from non-paying YouTube customers as extreme advertisements, provided that many smartphones nonetheless max out at QHD decision anyway. 

After all, if it encourages those that do care about high-resolution viewing to spend money on the platform’s Premium subscription package deal, it could even be extra profitable for Google. In any case, YouTube Premium, which affords ad-free viewing, background playback and the power to obtain movies for offline use, at present prices $11.99 / £11.99 / AU$14.99 per 30 days.

Suffice to say, the subscription service hasn’t taken off in fairly the best way Google would’ve hoped since its launch in 2014. Solely round 50 million customers are at present signed as much as YouTube Premium, whereas one thing near 2 billion folks actively use YouTube on a month-to-month foundation. 

May the addition of 4K video into Premium’s perk package deal bump up that quantity? Solely time will inform. We’ll be keeping track of our personal YouTube account to see whether or not this decision paywall turns into everlasting within the coming months.