Netflix starts pushing Basic users to other plans forcefully
Netflix has started to ask basic plan customers to pick another plan to continue using the service without interruption. The streaming company has been at war with the Basic plan for some time.
Basic, which is Netflix's cheapest ad-free plan, has not been available for selection during sign-up for some time. Now it appears that Netflix is going to discontinue the plan altogether.
The decision affects current Netflix customers who are subscribed to the basic plan. Basic, available for $9.99 in the United States and in a selection of other countries, streams content in HD quality and download content to one device.
Netflix did increase the price of Basic in October 2023 for the last time.
Netflix is asking customers to "choose a new plan to keep watching". The company explains that it values its customers, but that it is taking away the basic plan regardless of that.
The choice
Customers have two main choices:
- Switch to a different plan on Netflix.
- Do nothing and have the membership cancelled automatically.
The plans:
| Basic | Standard with Ads | Standard | Premium | |
| Price | $9.99 | $5.99 | $16.99 | $22.99 |
| Resolution | 720p | 1080p | 1080p | 4K HDR |
| 3D Audio | No | No | No | Yes |
| Stream on | 1 device | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Download to | 1 device | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Extra Members | No | No | 1 | 2 |
Netflix has three plans that customers may choose from. These are:
- Standard with ads -- available for $5.99, includes advertisement, Full HD video, watch and download on up to 2 devices. "A few" movies and TV shows are not available. Was previously known as Basic with Ads.
- Standard -- available for $16.49, Full HD video, watch and download on up to 2 devices. Option to add 1 extra member.
- Premium -- available for $22.99, Ultra HD video, watch and download on up to 4 devices. Option to add 2 extra members. Netflix spatial audio support.
Customers who do not switch to another plan before the end of the subscription period will have their memberships cancelled. The last billing period for this first batch of users is June 1, 2024. This means that the membership will be cancelled on July 1, 2024, if they do not switch to another plan.
Closing Words
Netflix has not revealed the number of affected customers. Clearly, the company is hoping that the majority of customers will switch to another plan. All of these are more lucrative than the basic plan, according to Netflix. The company said that its ad-supported plan had reached 23 million members as of January 2024.
For customers who want to keep on accessing Netflix content, it means having to pay more to stay ad-free, or paying less, but get the viewing experience interrupted by advertisement.
What about you? Are you subscribed to any of the streaming services?
I used to use Netflix out of convenience, but ever since they started with shady practices I’ve decided to just go the self hosted route, install Jellyfin which is easy to setup and run and have my own server with the movies and tv shows available in the resolution that is advertised on the tin.
Please learn to write properly and cease the use of the word “woke”. It makes you seem a little simple.
Woah!! Hold the phone… Hold. the. phone.
They are now eliminating the ad free basic option?!?!
… how ever could we have seen this coming?
/s
This is just a repetition of cable companies before them and basically worse because now you not only have to pay to see ads but also pay several companies which are all doing similar things to increase prices and show you ads to say the least.
These companies and executives then wonder why people turn to piracy and form a revolt… well… yeah.
This is your classic bait and switch from the same trolls that have always been around. Different faces, different names but basically the same moves from the same corporate scumbag handbook.
I am glad I never bothered with any of these subscription services at all and thankfully due to their prime focus being money and not the content it made my decision to not bother in the slightest all the more simpler.
Any show that was perhaps worth a grain of salt on any platform gets cut prematurely anyway because it isn’t pulling in the big so called “Game of Thrones money” (A series I never bothered with) gets cut before even having a real chance to gain traction and characters to develop. Even if they do then nobody is watching anyway because of reasons like this. They have simply created a system which is seen by customers like you and I that is beyond redemption.
@ViotletMoon Is correct though, there will be many people that will just roll with the punching until they are beaten to a bloody pulp which makes them perfectly primed for them to get more blood out of you.
There should have been a mass exodus long ago from Netflix at least but instead many people did not and therefore emblazoned and encouraged other companies to do similar things by virtue of leading by example and proving that people are still stupid enough to pay for less value. It’s a similar tactic that is used with food where they deploy shrinkflation.
This won’t be the last time you see stuff like this from netflix. Eventually all options will have ads which is the end game move but before that they will try up the prices on the remaining options and then leave the highest tier without ads for a good while but increase the prices so far that you’ll be glad they drop the prices and add ads at that point you are a lock to them and they will then in later times continue to increase prices once again to exceed or surpass what you were once paying the last time they did not have ads.
We will see a sharp increase in piracy and companies like this will claim that the pirates are just evil and they are somehow the victim in all of this when we all know its not how and they are last in the line of the victim parade. They may paint it as pirates stealing from content creators or whatever but they are the first in the tip jar to scoop out the biggest serving and then when your back is turned or they feel nobody is watching they will go in for seconds with another scoop from the tip jar.
You forgot the Premium +++ option Martin. With that one it’s just ads: no other content whatsoever will be played. Now you can watch your favourite ads 24/7 whenever you feel like it. :D
Maybe it’s where I live, but streaming anything is an infuriating experience. Inevitably the video breaks up, turning a pleasant face into a monster from the dark side or a tense sword fight into a pixelated cartoon. Until it improves I will not pay for streaming. Won’t even use if for free.
Netflix was the first streamer I subscribed to. But its become so tied up in its own content costs that it a far less value now then it was. I keep a basic ad based subscription and that’s it. Much of the streaming services have unfortunately cannibalized each other and rapidly raised fee’s. Add to that the music services raising their fee’s and the cost of streaming is losing its luster.
Well streaming in general this days is out of control with their price increase every 6 months or so. They are forcing me to go back to my BitTorrent days and most likely I will go back..
“All of these are more lucrative than the basic plan, according to Netflix.”
Great news–if one watches NFLX stock prices; be prepared for the next earnings report and know that the stock price will undoubtedly do what it has been doing–increase in increments of the $100s.
Purchase one share now or later; take the profit when Netflix announces the higher subscriber rates due to two things: 1) The addictive quality of streaming services; 2) Netflix bouncing and cancelling Basic.
Trust me, viewers won’t try and live without streaming/binging, and Netflix knows this.
Read a novel? Study German? Oh my!
We have Netflix (Standard) and Disney+ but it’s mostly for the kids and they don’t watch it ‘all day’. Usually just in the evenings.
If our disposable income dropped those would be the first things to go.
I haven’t been keeping up on Netflix prices, as I don’t subscribe to them and haven’t for several years, but WOW I could never justify $17/month for Netflix. That’s just a ridiculous price. They weren’t worth the much lower price I had several years ago.
I be nah feelin bad fer scallywags that still put up with these streaming services. Scallywags shall natter wit’ thar wallets and quite subscribing Netflix. Grab bottle of rum! Yo-ho-ho! Its time to set sail to the seas.
Too much bad woke movies indeed.
Netflix increased the price multiple times in the past couple of years.
Well, Netflix can do so, whenever and as often as they like (and contracts allow) and customers can run and cancel their subscription as fast as they can (and contracts allow).
If customers don’t understand basic economics in the form of supply and demand and the resulting effect on price, Netflix would be incredibly dumb to not do, what they gave been doing. In principle it’s the consumers, exhibiting the behavior they exhibit, asking for being ripped off.