Netflix is introducing a cheaper streaming plan – which will only cost subscribers $6.99 per month.
The ‘Basic with Ads’ option costs $4 less than Netflix’s current cheapest plan and will be rolled out on November 3rd, 2023.
However, the budget plans comes with some setbacks. Firstly, subscribers will have to watch around four to five minutes of advertisements per hour of streaming. Secondly, there will be a select amount of Netflix shows that won’t be available on the ‘Basic with Ads’ plan. Plus, unlike the current version, subscribers to the budget plan won’t be able to download content to watch offline.
Along with Australia, the ‘Basic with Ads’ plan is set to launch in the US, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain and the UK as well.
The movie comes after the streaming giant shared their dismal results earlier this year. Netflix lost 1.2million subscribers internationally in the first half of 2022, which is the first time they’ve reported a loss in customers since they launched 15 years ago.
Furthermore, In April, Netflix’s stock dropped by 35%, which meant that $35 billion USD was instantly wiped off its value. Netflix’s first-quarter profit this year was $1.6 billion, down from $1.7 billion from the year-earlier quarter.
However, despite the grim results, Netflix boss Reed Hastings has predicted that standard TV will be “dead” in ten years or less and that all series and movies will be streamed through platforms like Netflix.
“Looking forward, streaming is working everywhere – everyone is pouring in. It’s definitely the end of linear TV over the next five, 10 years. So very bullish on streaming,” he said at an investor meeting in July.
While Hastings acknowledged Netflix’s drop in customers, he stayed positive about the streaming giant’s future.
“If there was a single thing [that boosted the results], we might say Stranger Things. But again, we’re talking about losing one million instead of losing two million. So our excitement is tempered by the less bad results.”
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