Netflix’s new ad-supported plan to start at $6.99 a month in the US

To roll-out service in more countries

Netflix, Netflix Ad plan, Netflix ad plan price, Netflix ads

The new option will roll out in 12 countries including the United States, Brazil, Germany, Japan and Korea, over 10 days. (Image credit: AP)

Netflix will roll out a subscription option subsidised by advertisements in November in a dozen countries as it looks to boost revenues and acquire more users. Called ‘basic with ads’ the subscription will be priced at $6.99 in the United States, three dollars less than a basic option without ads in the country.

The move comes as the streaming giant battles a subscriber churn after it lost nearly a million subscribers during the three-month period ending June 30, marking the biggest ever quarterly fall in subscribers.

The ad-supported subscription, a first for Netflix, will roll out in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Spain and the United States. It is a big change for the company, which pioneered the idea of ad-free subscription-based streaming.

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What would be different in the ad-discounted version?

Apart from having, for the first time, third-party ads on its platform, the subscription plan will have its video quality capped to 720p while having an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour. Netflix said that a “limited” number of shows will not be available in this particular tier due to licencing restrictions which the company is “working on” to sort out. Users will also not be able to download titles. At launch, ads will be 15 or 30 seconds in length, which will play before and during shows and films.

When will it come to India?

India is not one of the 12 countries where Netflix is first launching the ad-supported plan, although the company has said that it expects to roll-out the service in more countries over time. “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,” it said in a statement.

However, it is worth noting that Netflix has some of the cheapest subscription plans compared to its services in other geographies and the impact on the existing subscription prices as and when it launches the ad-version plan in the country is yet to be clear, especially given the price-sensitive nature of the Indian market.

In India, Netflix plans start from Rs 149, or about two dollars a month, albeit that is a mobile-only plan. For other devices like smart televisions, the cheapest Netflix plan in India starts from Rs 199 per month which converts to around $2.6 a month. The streaming platform’s ‘standard’ plan in India costs Rs 499 per month and supports simultaneous streaming of high-definition content on two devices and has no ads.

Soumyarendra Barik

Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the intersection of technology, policy and society. With over five years of newsroom experience, he has reported on issues of gig workers’ rights, privacy, India’s prevalent digital divide and a range of other policy interventions that impact big tech companies. He once also tailed a food delivery worker for over 12 hours to quantify the amount of money they make, and the pain they go through while doing so. In his free time, he likes to nerd about watches, Formula 1 and football. ... Read More

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