Netflix axes ad-free subscription
Netflix has quietly removed its cheapest, ad-free subscription tier in the US and UK. This means the most basic plan now comes with ads. The ‘standard with adverts’ subscription tier costs $6.99 in the US, $5.99 in Canada, and £4.99 in the UK.
The shake-up aims to grow revenue in an increasingly crowded market. The three subscription plans now offered are a $6.99 ad-supported tier, $15.49 standard tier, and $19.99 premium tier, which comes with 4K + HDR resolution.
It’s worth mentioning this revision only affects new customers. If you’re already subscribed to Netflix, you can keep your original plan - you just won’t be able to downgrade to the old, ad-free tier.
In other Netflix news, its crackdown on password sharing resulted in 5.9 million new customer additions over three months - almost three times as many as analysts predicted. According to the company, more than 100m households were sharing passwords, which meant multiple users could watch Netflix without paying for accounts.
Netflix now has 238m subscribers globally. By comparison, Amazon Prime Video is just behind, but its numbers are boosted by virtue of the service being bundled together with Amazon Prime. Disney+ is third, with roughly 160 million subscribers.
Netflix isn’t alone in altering its model. Here’s how Peacock is about to charge you more per month.
