Audiences who choose the $6.99 subscription will be shown four to five minutes of ads for every hour of content they watch.
Netflix unveiled the details of its big effort to jump-start subscriber growth after the company’s first-quarter revelation that it had lost paying customers for the first time in a decade. Beginning Nov. 3 in the United States, Netflix will offer a $6.99 advertising-supported subscription called Basic With Ads, a lower-cost option that will show people four to five minutes of ads per hour of content they watch.
This tier will also be available in 11 other countries in November: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Spain.
“In short, ‘Basic with Ads’ is everything people love about Netflix, at a lower price, with a few ads in-between,” the company’s COO/CPO Greg Peters says in the statement.
In its announcement, Netflix specified that a limited number of TV series and movies will initially be unavailable due to restrictions on licensing. While users of the new “Basic with Ads” plan will have video quality up to 720p/HD, similar to the current “Basic” plan, users of the new tier will lose the ability to download movies and TV series.
Subscriptions without advertisements will remain for customers who are willing to pay higher prices.
“We’re confident that with Netflix starting at $6.99 a month, we now have a price and plan for every fan,” Peters says in the statement.
