Netflix's long-awaiting ad-supported plan is here and...wow, are there a lot of ads.
Today, the company announced that it will soon be launching Basic with Ads, its new ad-supported tier that brings the price of the streaming service down to just $6.99 per month (in the United States). That price sounds great, but you sacrifice a lot by dropping that far down from the $19.99 4K plan.
The company has revealed that the new Basic with Ads plan will be available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the US. It will officially launch on Thursday, November 3rd at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
Netflix also confirmed that the introduction of the new plan will not affect the existence of the ad-free Basic, Standard, and Premium plans.
What do you get with Basic with Ads?
The new Basic with Ads tier will still grant customers to most of the Netflix library (we'll get to that in a second), but there are some key sacrifices you are making if you decide to subscribe to that plan.
For one, the Basic with Ads plan will come with, of course, ads. And, according to Netflix, there are going to be a lot of them. The company stated in its press release that the new ad-supported tier will feature an "average" of four to five ads per hour. You might as well be watching network television at that point.
The other disappointing part about the Basic with Ads plan is that Netflix is limiting your streaming quality to a measly 720p. Not 4K. Not even 1080p. 720p. In 2022. That is atrocious.
The company has also revealed that "due to licensing restrictions," customers on this tier will not get access to the full Netflix library. It says it is working to resolve this, but it did not say what content will be missing or for how long.
The last thing you lose with the Basic with Ads plan is the ability to download movies and TV shows to your iPhone and iPad, so don't expect to load up your tablet with movies for your flight if you have this plan.
After looking into the details, the only good thing about this plan is the price. You're sacrificing damn near everything to get Netflix this cheap.
