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Netflix Details Ad-Supported Subscription Tier's November Rollout
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Netflix announced on Thursday that it will launch its new advertisement-supported "Basic with Ads" subscription tier in November in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and Australia. In particular, the tier will launch in the United States for US$6.99 per month on November 3 at 12:00 p.m. EDT.
The new subscription tier will have four to five minutes of advertisements per hour, and a maximum of 720p resolution for content, with no downloading of content for later viewing. Netflix added that a limited number of its content will not be available in this tier due to licensing issues "which we're working on."
The ads will play before and during content in 15- or 30-second lengths. Advertisers will be able to target their ads by country and genre.
Netflix stated in April it was considering adding an ad-supported streaming tier at a lower cost. Netflix made the announcement after stating it had a decrease of about 200,000 subscribers from January to March — far below the company's earlier projection of a gain of 2.5 million subscribers. This was the service's first drop in subscriptions in a decade.
Netflix announced in June that it was laying off 300 employees from its workforce. The Hollywood Reporter stated that the layoffs constituted around 3% of the company's current workforce. Netflix laid off about 150 employees, mostly based in the United States, in May.
The streaming service implemented a price increase in subscription plans in the U.S. and Canada earlier this year.
