Back in July, the streaming platform Netflix revealed that they have partnered with Microsoft to launch a new subscription tier that will be cheaper per month, but will also be ad-supported. Well, it seems like that has become a reality, as Netflix announces their new Basic with Ads subscription tier.
As announced by Netflix Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters, the new Netflix Basic with Ads costs just USD6.99 (~RM32.79) and will be made available this November, starting with 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US. Netflix Basic with Ads will become its cheapest option, with the nothing else changed about the regular ad-free plans that start at USD9.99.
“We’re confident that with Netflix starting at $6.99 a month, we now have a price and plan for every fan. While it’s still very early days, we’re pleased with the interest from both consumers and the advertising community — and couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead,” – Greg Peters, Netflix COO
Enjoy your Netflix experience exactly as it is today? Great! Nothing about the way you watch Netflix is going to change.
— Netflix (@netflix) October 13, 2022
From November, Netflix will be available from $6.99 a month. Basic with Ads, Netflix’s new lower priced ad-supported plan. https://t.co/OjRfIkbXWs
While the idea of an ad-supported Netflix subscription might seem interesting to those of you—Netflix presents it as ‘everything people love about Netflix at a lower price—the amount of ads being shown may be enough to put off potential customers. For starters, the ads will each be 15 to 30 seconds in length, and will be shown not just before you start watching but also during the show itself. Netflix will also be showing ‘between four to five minutes of ads’ every hour. The platform adds that the ads shown will be targeted based on location and content genre, with advertisers able to prevent their ads being shown on content inconsistent with their brand.
Furthermore, the Basic with Ads plan will have a number of other restrictions. While you’re still limited to streaming on just one supported device at a time like the regular, ad-free Basic plan, Netflix says that ‘some’ movies and TV shows will be unavailable due to licensing restrictions. There’s also no ability to download titles, and you’re limited to video quality of up to 720p only. Here’s how Netflix Basic with Ads stacks up against the other plans in the US:
There’s so far no information on whether or not Netflix plans to bring Basic with Ads to our region, but Peters does mention that they’re already looking forward to launching Basic with Ads in other countries over time. If they do launch Basic with Ads in Malaysia though, it would have to be quite a bit cheaper than the current cheapest plan offered by Netflix Malaysia, which is the Mobile plan. At RM17 per month, it doesn’t have 720p playback and is limited to just mobile devices, but is still ad-free and also allows you to download content.
