Netflix has officially cut the cord on their Basic plan in the U.S. and U.K., eliminating the lowest-priced option without ads. This would in theory force those who don’t want to have their Is It Cake? episodes cluttered with commercials to pay more to do so.
As of this week, Netflix has ditched Basic and so now only offers three plans: Standard with ads at $6.99/month, Standard at $15.49/month and Premium at $19.99/month. New users who missed out on Basic would probably find the next-best fit to be Standard, although it is more than five dollars more.
The tier system was initially put into action last November, which both gave viewers options on how they wanted to watch their content and put Netflix in further competition with streaming rivals such as Disney, who also offer multiple plans for subscribers.
As for those who currently have the Basic tier, Netflix did write, “The Basic plan is no longer available for new or rejoining members. If you are currently on the Basic plan, you can remain on this plan until you change plans or cancel your account.” This is at least a respectable move by Netflix (right…?), who have wisely opted not to secretively “upgrade” their current Basic subscribers.
But Netflix has made plenty of questionable and unfavorable moves as of late, a number of which go against their initial and ambitious ideas. Earlier this year, Netflix went ahead with their plan to crack down on password sharing. While this remains a nuisance to plenty of users, Netflix reported a major uptick in subscribers, averaging more than 70,000 new sign-ups in the last month of May. This indicates that Netflix, while certainly frequently under fire for the cancelling beloved programming, has a confident feel on how to drive up their revenue, which they’ll need to do after reporting in April that they missed their subscriber goal, resulting in a dip in stock. The question is, will this truly push people to sign up for the $15.49/month Standard plan – which is already their most popular – or will it knock them down to Standard with ads?
How does Netflix ditching their Basic plan affect you? Do you see yourself changing plans? Let us know in the comments section below!
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed