Netflix Begins Warning Some Existing Subscribers That Ad-Free ‘Basic’ Plan is About to Disappear
It’s been nearly a year since Netflix stopped offering the Basic plan to new customers, but existing users could still access it.
The takeover of Netflix’s Standard with Ads plan is continuing. One report in April suggested that the streamer had 7 million customers on the tier in the United States and Canada alone, and Netflix has made plenty of moves to try and enhance the plan’s attractiveness in the eyes of customers since its November 2022 launch. The streamer has already sunset its cheapest ad-free plan for new subscribers, but existing customers of the Basic plan have been allowed to keep it until now. A new report from Streaming Better indicates that Netflix has been warning some subscribers that they are about to lose access to their Basic plan, as the streamer tries to get as many viewers to opt for the ad-supported option as possible.
Key Details:
- Netflix customers in the United Kingdom and Canada are being notified their Basic plan will no longer be available starting in early June.
- Some are being told they’ll be downgraded to the Standard with Ads plan, while others have been informed they’ll have to sign up for a new subscription.
- No date has been given by Netflix for the removal of the Basic plan for customers in the United States.
Netflix first began informing customers in the United States that new users would not be allowed to opt for the ad-free Basic plan starting in July 2023. Existing customers who had already chosen that plan would be allowed to keep it, but when Netflix reported its first quarter 2024 earnings it announced it would begin phasing out the Basic plan for current subscribers in the U.K. and Canada this year.
Some customers in those countries have begun receiving emails from Netflix saying that their access to the Basic plan would end in early June. In the U.K., viewers have been told they’ll automatically be switched to the Standard with Ads plan, but Canadian customers are being told they’ll see their account canceled if they don’t pick a new plan before their final billing date of June 1.
The Streamable has reached out to Netflix for confirmation, as well as to see if there are any new details available on when the Basic plan will be sunset for existing customers in the United States, but we have not yet heard back from the streamer.
Is Netflix Taking a Lesson from Prime Video?
Unlike Netflix, Amazon’s streaming platform Prime Video did not give customers the choice of paying less to stream content with ads when it launched its ad-supported plan at the end of January. It simply forced all current subscribers to stomach ads by integrating them with its main plan, then created a more expensive tier that viewers who wanted to stream without commercials could upgrade to.
Netflix may be about to do something similar. If it automatically downgrades all existing Basic users to the Standard with Ads plan as it intends to do in the U.K., it will gain a wide selection of new customers on the plan. Even its strategy for forcing Canadian customers to choose their new tier of service could end up with a large number choosing the ad plan; a recent survey found that 80% of Prime Video customers chose to stay on the ad-supported plan when it launched early this year.
On-demand content with no commercials used to be one of streaming’s biggest advantages over cable, but streaming providers are responding to demands from investors that their platforms show a profit. Ad-supported streaming can bring in much more revenue than ad-free plans, which is why companies like Netflix are discontinuing their cheapest ad-free subscription options, even for legacy customers.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.