YouTube's latest test threatens to downgrade video quality if you don't pay up

A new 1080p Premium tier has shown up for some users With ad tracking facing intense scrutiny in courts around the globe, tech companies are looking to subscription models as a way to make up for lost revenue. Twitter has recently tried multiple different schemes to get users to pay for things that used to be free, and though Google already offers a YouTube Premium subscription, features it has tested lately suggest the company could be moving some free functionality behind a paywall to make its Premium service more enticing. One user on Reddit has spotted a new 1080p Premium video quality setting with “Enhanced bitrate” (via This Is Tech Today). On the surface, this may sound like an innocuous way to brand full HD videos with higher-than-normal frame rates, but there’s reason to believe YouTube could be testing the waters on blocking free users from accessing 1080p videos in 60 or 120Hz. You’ll notice that Premium is capitalized, which could easily be a reference to YouTube Premium being required to access this video quality option. This is incredibly similar to the phrasing used during another test in October where YouTube tipped its hand a little more: the 2160p60 setting
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