Netflix’s ad-supported to launch November 3rd, cost $6.99 per month

In the beginning, when pay TV appeared on the good earth (Z Channel, for example), the services were ad-free. Then, as costs began to mount, precipitously in some cases (Netflix, for example), subscriptions began to plateau or even decline. So, now, we have arrived at the point of paying for ads, albeit at a significantly lower price than the ad-free tiers, but still, it’s paying for ads. Netflix’s new ad-supported tier will launch on November 3rd and cost $6.99 per month in the U.S. (Can$5.99 a month in Canada).

Netflix:

We’re excited to launch Basic with Ads — Netflix’s lower priced ad-supported plan — in November.

• Unmissable entertainment at unbeatable value: Basic with Ads will cost just $6.99 a month in the US and launch on November 3 at 9 am PT.

• Available in 12 countries: Basic with Ads will be available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US.

• A plan for every fan: Our current plans and members will not be impacted. Basic with Ads complements our existing ad-free Basic, Standard and Premium plans.

Basic with Ads offers all the features people expect from Netflix’s Basic plan, with a few differences:

• What stays the same: A wide variety of great TV shows and movies; personalized viewing experience; available on a wide range of TV and mobile devices; change or cancel your plan at any time.

• What’s different: Video quality up to 720p/HD (now for both our Basic with Ads and Basic plans); average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour; a limited number of movies and TV shows won’t be available due to licensing restrictions, which we’re working on; no ability to download titles.

In short, Basic with Ads is everything people love about Netflix, at a lower price, with a few ads in-between. Starting in November, signing up will be easy — visit Netflix.com, and register with your email, date of birth, and gender to get started.

Basic with Ads also represents an exciting opportunity for advertisers — the chance to reach a diverse audience, including younger viewers who increasingly don’t watch linear TV, in a premium environment with a seamless, high-resolution ads experience.

• Ad Format: At launch, ads will be 15 or 30 seconds in length, which will play before and during shows and films.

• Advertiser Controls: To help advertisers reach the right audience — and ensure our ads are more relevant for consumers — we’ll offer broad targeting capabilities by country and genre (e.g. action, drama, romance, sci-fi). Advertisers will also be able to prevent their ads from appearing on content that might be inconsistent with their brand (e.g. sex, nudity or graphic violence).

• Verification Tools: We have partnerships with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to verify the viewability and traffic validity of our ads starting in Q1 2023.

• Audience Measurement: To enable advertisers to understand how Netflix can reach their target audience, Nielsen will use its Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) in the U.S. This will become available sometime in 2023 and eventually be reported through Nielsen ONE Ads.

Basic with Ads will launch just six months after we first announced the option of a lower priced ads plan. None of this would have been possible without our team’s hard work or Microsoft’s extraordinary partnership. The switch from linear is happening at an ever increasing speed, with streaming now surpassing broadcast and cable in the US. 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. As we learn from and improve the experience, we expect to launch in more countries over time.

MacDailyNews Take: Okay, so, who’s in?

FYI, this sort of thing will be coming to more streaming services in the future to help offset costs and boost subscriber growth, including, as we reported in August, Apple TV+ which looks to be planning to launch an ad-supported tier likely in 2023.

Hearing from a little birdie that Apple is planning to launch an ad-supported version of its Apple TV+ streaming-video platform. pic.twitter.com/tfbt7JyMLs

— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) August 4, 2022

Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!

Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.