Netflix Announces Ad-Supported Plan for 12 Countries
Netflix has finally unveiled the pricing and availability for its upcoming ad-supported plan, which was announced earlier this year after the streaming service suffered a massive blow to its stock price after revealing that it had lost subscribers for the first time in a decade. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos previously confirmed back in June that the more affordable tier would be coming before the year ends, but did not disclose any other detail.
In its latest blog post, the company announced that the cheaper plan will be coming on 3 November to these 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US. In the US, the "Basic with ads" plan will cost US$6.99 per month, US$3 cheaper than the Basic plan.
Of course, users will have to make some sacrifices if they want those savings. First of all, Basic with ads users will have to endure two ads before every show and movie, each with a duration of either 15 or 30 seconds. The plan also does not offer the ability to download titles for offline viewing.
Netflix says that not all of its content will be available on the ad-supported tier due to licensing restrictions, but it's apparently working to rectify that in the future. A Bloomberg report quoting anonymous sources previously claimed that the new plan would exclude ads from new original movies for a limited time after premiering as well as children's shows, although the streaming giant did not mention anything of the sort in its announcement.
One great benefit from this move is that both the Basic with ads and Basic plans will be offering 720p streaming from November onwards, which means that current Basic subscribers will be getting an upgrade from their 480p resolution cap without any changes to the pricing. In Malaysia, Netflix's Mobile plan is currently the cheapest tier available at only RM17 per month while subscriptions start at S$12.98 per month for the Basic subscription in Singapore — as of writing, it's unknown when or even if the ad-supported option will be coming to the region.
Netflix is launching a new ad-supported plan in 12 countries, which will be available on 3 November.
Users will be served ads before and during shows and movies.
The Basic plan will be upgraded to 720p streaming when the Basic with ads tier debuts.