In the United States, Netflix has officially launched its ad-supported tier, which essentially means that those who are subscribed to that plan will have ads during their content.
That plan is called “Basic with ads.”
The idea is to help Netflix generate an extra form of revenue stream, as well as bring costs down to consumers in the U.S. that have struggled mightily this year with inflation, with other streaming services and platforms increasing prices too.
Netflix’s new ad-supported plan starts at just $6.99 a month. It does come with some restrictions such as not being able to download movies or TV shows for offline viewing. The streaming video quality is also diminished to 720p.
Another important part of the ad-supported Netflix plan is some content, due to licensing restrictions, is not available to stream on Netflix. The company has said they do hope to remedy this issue in the future, but for now, that is not the case.
Ads on Netflix will play before and while the content is played and the ads are said to not be more than 30 seconds long.
Other streaming services like Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, and Prime Video through Amazon Freevee all have plans and versions of themselves that do have ads.
To avoid ads on Netflix, users would have to upgrade to its Basic tier that is ad-free and costs $9.99 a month. Additionally, it would have support for downloading and watching content offline.
Netflix is available to stream on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac.
