Netflix announces new ad-supported plan
The video quality of the content is limited to 720p/HD in this plan, and users will be served four to five minutes of ads per hour on average.
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Netflix, the world's largest OTT (over-the-top) service, has announced an ad-supported subscription plan for users.
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The company also confirmed that an ad-supported subscription would be available, but provided few details.
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In other countries, Netflix will implement this plan gradually.
Prepare yourself: advertisements are on their way...to Netflix. In an official blog post, the streaming platform formally ended its "no ads" policy and announced its first ad-supported plan.
The 'Basic with Ads' plan (as if Netflix couldn't come up with a more unappealing name) will cost US users $6.99 per month, a full $3 less than the current entry-level option, and will be available in early November.
The 'Basic with Ads' plan, according to Netflix, will bring the best of what Netflix has to offer at a much lower price. There are, of course, some qualifications.
As the name implies, users will have to endure a barrage of advertisements both before and during their favourite Netflix titles. The ads will be between 15 and 30 seconds long, with a total ad time of about 4-5 minutes per hour.
This means that users could be forced to watch up to 20 advertisements in a single episode of a TV show.
This, however, is not the only disadvantage of Netflix's new subscription plan. A number of titles will not be available at launch due to legal reasons, and users will not be able to watch any content offline.
In a nutshell, you will have a less pleasant viewing experience, a smaller library to choose from, and the disadvantage of always relying on a stable network connection. That's a high price to pay to save $3.
At the very least, the video quality will be comparable to that of the standard Netflix 'Basic' plan (i.e. up to 720p or HD). Finally, the new subscription tier will have no effect on existing plans.
The 'Basic with Ads' plan will be available in 12 countries and will go on sale on November 3 at 9 a.m. PT.
