According to Deadline, Netflix has announced the addition of an ad-supported tier, its launch date, and the price of the tier. This news comes as Disney+ also announced the price of its ad-supported tier and to everyone’s surprise, Netflix’s is cheaper.
According to Deadline, the company revealed that its new subscription option will be called “Basic with Ads” and will cost around $6.99 a month. This new subscription tier will launch on November 3rd in the United States with countries like Canada and Mexico having the new tier available on November 1st. The new subscription plan will also be available in other countries like Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, and the UK on November 3rd. The ad-supported subscription will be less than half the price of the most popular plan, Standard, which costs around $15.49 a month.
Disney has joined the streaming companies that have decided to add advertisements to their streaming service. According to Deadline, Disney announced it will hike prices for Disney+ and create a new ad-supported version of the platform. The new plan launches on December 8 and will cost $7.99 a month, which is currently the stand-alone price for the ad-free Disney+. After the launch, the add-free Disney+ will increase its price to $10.99, though the option to bundle Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu offers savings on the regular price of the individual platforms.
Regarding the run-time of the ads, Netflix COO Greg Peters claims that there will be around four to five minutes of ads per hour. Both series and feature films will be interrupted for the ads.
Peters then clarified how the ads will work for movies. New movies coming to the platform, especially original movies like Knives Out 2, will have a pre-roll of ads. Meaning, that the ads will play before the movie starts therefore not causing interruptions. On the other hand, movies that have been a part of the platform for some time will have a mix of pre-roll and mid-roll ads, but with less frequent breaks.
Adding advertisements to its platform was a decision that Netflix didn’t take lightly. But this year, due to the impact of inflation and a worsening economy, the executives at Netflix had to change their stance.
The new ad-supportive plan will start rolling out in November for Netflix and in December for Disney+.