Netflix, the American subscription-based streaming service, will finally launch its new ad-supported tier for a few dollars per month in November.
According to The Verge, this announcement is yet another sign that the once-disruptive upstart streaming service has gradually evolved into a cable package under a different name.
On November 3, 2022, the company announced that its new Basic with Ads tier plan will be available for USD 6.99 in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
According to The Verge, the Basic with Ads plan gives subscribers access to a large portion of Netflix’s programming in exchange for forcing them to watch an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour.
However, not the entire catalogue will be available, as a small selection of television shows and movies will be unavailable to Basic with Ads subscribers due to licencing restrictions, which Netflix says it is working on.
Each Netflix advertisement will run for 15 to 30 seconds and will appear before and during shows. Subscribers to Basic with Ads will also be unable to download content to their devices, and video quality will be limited to 720p / HD, according to The Verge.
Netflix described the new tier as “pro-consumer” during a press conference announcing it, explaining how its internal content tagging teams were tasked with finding natural breakpoints in various shows and films to place commercials in.
Netflix’s ad tier comes in response to the streamer’s sudden slump, which saw it lose over 1 million subscribers in the US and Canada earlier this year and see its stock price plummet in response to investor concerns that its period of rapid growth has come to an end.
(source : ANI)
