Netflix Starts Forcing Basic Subscribers to Switch Plans
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If you’ve been enjoying Netflix’s cheapest ad-free tier, your ride may soon end. Netflix is discontinuing its Basic plan even for those previously grandfathered in, requiring customers to pick a new plan if they want to continue using the service beyond a certain date.
Netflix announced the move to investors earlier this year, so it’s not entirely out of the blue, but it’s still catching quite a few folks off-guard as not everybody pays attention to industry news.
As reported by The Verge, multiple users have shared on Reddit how they’ve been told to pick a new plan or go away. Some have also indicated that the cutoff isn’t tied to their regular renewal date, preventing them from watching what they’ve already paid for without switching to a new plan.
So far, the posts appear to be coming from folks in Canada and the UK, where Netflix typically rolls out changes before bringing them to the US. That also aligns with what Netflix said in January when it told investors it wanted to push more people into its ad-supported plans.
In Q4‘23, like the quarter before, our ads membership increased by nearly 70% quarter over quarter, supported by improvements in our offering (e.g., downloads) and the phasing out of our Basic plan for new and rejoining members in our ads markets. The ads plan now accounts for 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in our ads markets and we’re looking to retire our Basic plan in some of our ads countries, starting with Canada and the UK in Q2 and taking it from thereNetflix
Netflix officially discontinued the Basic plan for new subscribers last summer, although, at the time, it allowed existing customers to remain on it as long as they didn’t switch to a new plan. However, per the company’s comments to investors quoted above, that decision resulted in a wave of new signups to its ad-supported plan, where it makes considerably more money than it does from paying ad-free subscribers — especially those on the Basic plan.
It’s apparent that Netflix wanted to get existing customers off the Basic plan. However, it wasn’t willing to cut people off outright, at least not immediately. Instead, Netflix raised the price of the Basic plan to $11.99 in October in a nakedly passive-aggressive attempt to get people to switch.
The Standard with Ads and Standard plans remained at $6.99 and $15.49, respectively. Netflix presumably hoped that the extra $2 monthly cost would encourage more people to save money by enduring ads or make the smaller leap to the Standard ad-free plan.
The Basic plan has become a bit of an oddball over the past year or so, as it remains capped at 720p viewing and a single screen, while the original ad-supported plan went from a similar “Basic with ads” to “Standard with ads,” gaining nearly all the features of the $15.49 Standard plan, including 1080p HD viewing on up to two screens.
It’s probably fair to say that the Basic plan’s days were numbered as soon as that happened. Considering how much money it’s making from its ad-supported tier, Netflix undoubtedly hoped the changes would lure more Basic subscribers to switch to the cheaper plan, saving $3.50 per month to get higher quality viewing in exchange for ads.
When that didn’t happen, Netflix decided to axe the Basic plan for new subscribers and raise its price by $2 per month to try to push people away from it. However, it seems there are still too many people grandfathered into the Basic plan for Netflix’s comfort, so now it’s decided to force the issue.
There’s no word on when this will hit US subscribers, but if past rollouts are any indication, the Basic plan will likely be gone in all countries where the ad-supported tier is available by the end of the year.
