User blog comment:Drkdragonz66/Call of Duty ELITE gets redesigned/@comment-86.129.76.116-20121007223329/@comment-1854594-20121007233508

Yes it's free. Premium also gives you what you just said, but Premium's primary purpose was to give you MW3's dlc earlier and cheaper. Don't know if they will do the same for dlc in Black Ops II.