After confirming that an ad-based subscription is in the works, Netflix officially announced its much-awaited Basic with Ads with a monthly price of $6.99(~Php 420) in the US, 4.99 Pounds in the UK, CAD $5.99 in Canada, and AUD $ 6.99 in Australia. Netflix Basic with Ads will go live in 12 countries that include the US, Brazil, France, Germany, Canada, UK, Australia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Spain starting November 3.
With this tier, Netflix says that the advertisements will be anywhere between four to five minutes per hour, which is actually less than what standard broadcast or cable TV shows on average. Like broadcast and cable TV, the ads will range anywhere between 15 to 30 seconds long. Netflix also assures that the ads that will be shown will be relevant to their customers and that Nielsen will use its Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) in the US to help advertisers understand which ads to show on Netflix.
Aside from having advertisments in between shows, there are a number of limitations with this ad-supported Netflix Basic tier: the video quality is capped at 720p, and you cannot download content on mobile devices. In addition to that, some shows and movies are not available with this ad-supported tier due to licensing restrictions–Netflix has yet to identify which shows will be affected by this.
Looking at the competition, however, Netflix’s ad-supported tier is a Dollar more affordable than Disney Plus’ equivalent plan. With that to be considered, Netflix hopes that its ad-supported plan can help bring back a number of former subscribers who are not happy with the price hikes for the rest of the platform’s ad-free plans.