Subscribers of the ad-supported tier of Netflix will soon be able to enjoy their favorite shows ad-free as long as they’re willing to binge-watch, the streaming giant announced on Wednesday (November 1).
This new reward system, which is slated to come out in early 2024, works like this: an ad-supported Netflix member watches three consecutive episodes of a show, resulting in the fourth one being ad-free. Assuming the average runtime of a show is 40 minutes, ad-supported subscribers will need to binge-watch for around 2 hours before they can enjoy watching their favorite show without advertisments.
Netflix also revealed in a blog post that it plans to upgrade the feature set of its ad-supported plan by introducing 1080p video quality, the ability to have two concurrent streams, and downloadable shows by the end of the week.
The changes will make Netflix the only streamer to offer downloads to its ad-supported members, according to the company. These developments come as Netflix’s ad-supported plan reached 15 million monthly active users globally a year after it was launched.
“We have built an incredible foundation, focusing on areas advertisers told us matter most, all while delivering unmissable entertainment at an unbeatable value,” the platform claimed.
Netflix’s ad-supported plan costs $6.99, or around Php 390, and is only available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
There are currently four Netflix subscription tiers in the Philippines that range in monthly price from Php 149 to Php 549, all of which feature ad-free unlimited streaming and downloads.