Netflix Will Be Introducing An Ad-Supported Subscription In Early November

Is it worth the savings?

After being confirmed earlier this year, Netflix has officially announced they’ll be introducing an ad-supported subscription tier in early November.

The new tier, called ‘Basic with Ads’ will cost $6.99 per month, and will be available from Wednesday, November 4.

Netflix Basic with ads plan.#Netflix pic.twitter.com/ycx5H93fvb

— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) October 14, 2022

This is a whole lot cheaper than the basic and premium subscriptions, which cost $10.99 and $22.99 per month respectively.

For a while it’s been a little unclear what the new tier will look like, but in a press release last week, Netflix confirmed most of the details.

The biggest benefit of the new subscription is the price – at $6.99 it’ll be the equal cheapest major streaming service option in Australia, alongside Amazon Prime Video.

Netflix has said the ads will amount to about four to five minutes of advertisements per hour of watched content.

Specific ads will last between 15 and 30 seconds.

Netflix haven’t confirmed how the ads will work specifically – we know they’ll run before and during your chosen program, but that’s about it.

Unlike commercial TV, which has natural ad breaks, films and TV made for streaming aren’t designed to have ad breaks.

So the question is whether Netflix will design the ads to come at specific times that won’t interrupt the flow of a program, or if they’ll just come at a random time.

The new tier will also cap streaming at 720p – the basic plan was previously capped at 480p, but once the new tier is rolled out, Basic will also be capped at 720p.

But if you’re serious about video quality and only want the best – the Premium tier is the only option that supports up to 4K streaming.

Unfortunately, the ad-supported option also doesn’t allow downloads, which can be really useful while travelling or when using a slow internet connection.

There’ll also apparently be some content missing on the ad-supported option, largely because of rights deals signed by Netflix – but we don’t know what content will be unavailable just yet.

But, if the few drawbacks don’t dismay you, the ad-supported option could be a good option.

It’ll save you money, plus who knows, maybe the ad breaks will be just the thing needed to run and grab some snacks.