YouTube ends the check asking customers to get a premium subscription to observe 4K movies • TechCrunch

Earlier this month, YouTube ran an experiment the place it requested some free customers to improve to a premium account to observe movies in 4K decision. The corporate has now ended this check — most likely due to uproar from customers.

In a tweet, YouTube confirmed the tip of the experiment and mentioned, “viewers ought to now be capable of entry 4K high quality resolutions with out Premium membership.” So all customers can now watch movies on the highest decision with out paying for a subscription.

YouTube ran the check to know to gauge customers’ reactions when a specific characteristic was pushed behind the premium tier. In a now-deleted tweet, the corporate informed a consumer who obtained a pop-up asking them to improve that the consumer was “part of our experiment to know higher the characteristic preferences of Premium & non-Premium viewers.”

Google expenses $9.99 monthly for YouTube Music and $11.99 monthly for YouTube premium within the U.S. — these costs fluctuate the world over. The corporate claims to have greater than 50 million paid subscribers throughout each choices globally. The Premium subscription affords options like ad-free viewing, video downloads for offline consumption, and background play.

YouTube tries some ways to transform free customers into paid customers. Earlier this 12 months, it ran an experiment exhibiting customers as much as 11 unskippable advertisements earlier than the beginning of a protracted video to allow them to have an uninterrupted expertise. This check was short-lived and the corporate ended it inside days.

Final week, YouTube launched a brand new characteristic referred to as handles — which is analogous to what different social networks like Twitter, Instagram, and Fb provide — that enables creators to direct viewers to their channel simply.