After months of speculation, Netflix will begin offering an ad-supported plan beginning in November.
The new ad-supported tier will launch amid a tumultuous year for Netflix, which faced subscriber losses in the first half of 2022. The company’s hope is that this price-conscious plan will boost both subscribers and revenue in the longterm, in a win-win for everyone.
While it will now be Netflix’s least expensive plan, the Basic with Ads subscriber option comes with a few strings attached — mainly, that anyone opting in to the tier can expect to see between 4-5 minutes of commercials per each hour of content. On the other hand, it comes at a lower monthly price point. (For those uninterested in ads, Netflix will continue to offer its ad-free plans at higher price points.)
Before ads come to Netflix, here’s everything you need to know regarding the newest plan, including when it will launch and how much it will cost.
How Much Does Netflix With Ads Cost?
The Netflix Basic with Ads plan will cost $6.99 a month. If you’re a member who’s already on a Basic, Standard, or Premium plan, you won’t see any ads or price increases.
When Will I Be Able to Subscribe?
Basic with Ads will launch on November 3rd at 12:00 p.m. ET in the US and the UK, as well as Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Spain. As it grows, Netflix plans on making the plan available to more countries in the future.
How Does It Differ From the Basic Plan?
Basic with Ads will cost $6.99 a month, while the Basic plan costs $9.99. With the Ads plan, you’ll also see about four to five minutes worth of advertisements each hour. Due to licensing restrictions, some titles will be unavailable, which the streaming service has said it will be working on. Ad-supported subscribers will also be unable to download titles. Both the Basic and Basic with Ads plans will feature video quality up to 720p/HD, though.
Which Titles Are Unavailable?
Some of the shows currently unavailable on Basic with Ads are Arrested Development, Breaking Bad, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, The Crown, Cobra Kai, and House of Cards. Also not included are Peaky Blinders, New Girl, The Magicians, The Last Kingdom, The Sinner, Good Girls, The Good Place, and Friday Night Lights.
Subscribers also won’t be able to watch the following movies: Skyfall, 28 Days, The Imitation Game, and The Bad Guys.
How Will It Be the Same?
Both Basic plans will allow streaming from one device at a time. And while there are some restrictions on what can be watched on the Basic with Ads plan at launch, there will still be an array of titles available for viewers to watch.
How Will the Actual Advertising Work?
The four to five minutes of ads will be shown in increments of 15 or 30 seconds that will be played before as well as during shows and movies. Netflix said it will be using “broad targeting capabilities” to allow advertisers to reach their target audience. This will be done through both country and genre, while also allowing advertisers to prevent certain ads from being run on content that doesn’t match up with their product or service.
Netflix also announced new partnerships with DoublyVerify and Integral Ad Science in order to verify the ads’ viewability and traffic validity, a program which will begin in Q1 2023. To gauge audiences and find their niche market, data will be available in 2023 through Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings for the US. When the data is present, it will then be reported using Nielsen ONE Ads. This means yet more information will be publicly available about what people are watching on Netflix — and how much of it they’re watching.
