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Television

The 'Basic' Netflix Subscription Is Now All But Deceased (gizmodo.com) 58

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
With no formal announcement, Netflix removed its $9.99 "Basic" subscription tier for anybody trying to sign up for a new account or resubscribe in the U.S. and UK. From a report: Now your two options are to pay $5.50 more per month for the "Standard" plan, or otherwise suffer through constant ad interruptions with what's now been dubbed "Standard with ads."

All the changes are listed on the service's help center page. The company noted that the Basic plan "is no longer available for new or rejoining members. If you are currently on the Basic plan, you can remain on this plan until you change plans or cancel your account." Netflix pulled the same move in Canada last month, again without any official announcement. The company has been extra cagey about its latest subscription plan shakeup, which could lead to some rather nasty surprises for anybody who leaves Netflix but comes back later hoping to sign up for the $10 ad-free option.
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The 'Basic' Netflix Subscription Is Now All But Deceased More

The 'Basic' Netflix Subscription Is Now All But Deceased

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  • It just says: Now your two options are to pay $5.50 more per month for the "Standard" plan, or otherwise suffer through constant ad interruptions with what's now been dubbed "Standard with ads."

    Why leave out the third option, the premium plan?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      It just says: Now your two options are to pay $5.50 more per month for the "Standard" plan, or otherwise suffer through constant ad interruptions with what's now been dubbed "Standard with ads."

      Why leave out the third option, the premium plan?

      Well, I'm sure that's what Netflix would like you to do, but.... :-)

      I'd have probably said that your only two options are to pay at least $5.50 more per month for the standard plan or higher, or to suck ads. :-D

    • Re:Why do they leave out the "premium" plan? (Score:4, Informative)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2023 @10:14AM (#63699012)
      I think they were just focused on the minimum you could pay to get a plan with the new tiers. The whole thing could be worded better, though. For anyone wondering, the current plans are
      Standard with Ads (HD, 2 screens): $6.99
      Standard (HD, 2 screens): $15.49
      Premium (UHD, 4 screens): $19.99
      • I was there with Netflix from the early days...DVDs, then BluRay...hell, I even still had the BluRay option going with streaming when I cancelled.

        They just did NOT have content that was worth it....the only stuff I really found to be interesting were the movies on disk, but I grew tired of returning them, etc.

        Their home generated stuff, well...I didn't feel like plowing through the garbage to find the gems.

        They had almost lost all the old sitcom shows I liked (70's Show, etc)...and no "real" movies offer

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by EvilSS ( 557649 )
          I was also an early adopter of their streaming service, already using them for physical media back in the day. I dropped them last year because they just were not worth it for the few shows I was watching. That and they have been ruthless in canceling shows they make with no resolution to the open arcs and cliffhangers. Ironic since, when they bought most of their shows from networks, they were the reason a lot of TV shows got a final wrap-up season as they were known to favor buying shows with completed ar

        • I'll have the disc option until they shut it down in September.

          Physical media's use of the First Sale Doctrine makes it effectively necessary to get a really deep catalog.

      • Two screens has zero value for me. HD has little value compared to SD, and 4k has zero. Ads are an absolute no. If they stop offering my account as it is right now, Iâ(TM)m gone. And if I decided to leave for a year and canâ(TM)t get the same terms returning I would not return.

        I suppose that preventing account sharing makes three or four screens pointless for many people, so these subscriptions will be cancelled.

      • So it's 5 bucks for 4 people? That's fair.

        Gotta find 3 friends to sign up with me.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I think the big question is, how many takers will there be for the ad tier.

      FreeVee for example has a ton content. A lot of that is even pretty good production value stuff, if dated. I see it come up in searches because I have prime.

      I can count on one hand the times I have watched anything on it. I just can't stand watching shows / movies with ads anymore. Commercial breaks just ruin the experience of watching TV now.

      I can honestly say if I am expected to pay *anything* it better be almost entirely ad free

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why leave out the third option, the premium plan?

      Or the fourth option: Vote with your wallet. Tell Netflix to fuck off and stop giving them money.

      • This is the only correct approach where they demand money for air. Cable TV was also off to a great start. And then my sports channels reduced the variety of shows to a minimal and boring package. I said no and went to the bookmakers site - https://melbet.com/ [melbet.com] I receive links to the schedule of the necessary broadcasts and I am completely satisfied. Whether to bid or not is my personal desire and not someone else's requirement)) But I get all the additional content that I need.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mysidia ( 191772 )

      I'd say those are your two options excluding the obvious ones - Cancel Netflix entirely or pay them even more on top of the Standard plan, But there's no reason to consider that option if you were thinking about joining under the $10 plan, then budget is clearly a priority. And Cancelling Netflix is like the "control" option -- it's not an option Netflix offers, but it's a choice you have nevertheless.

  • A move like this will result in piracy being perceived as the superior choice in the eyes of the average consumer. The greed of the media companies will kill off all the services eventually and they will only have themselves to blame.

    A no-logs VPN service is less than half the price of their âStandard With Advertsâ(TM) offering, typically allows password sharing with as many as 5 people and allows one to anonymously acquire any/all content, not just that found on Netflix.

    What a fail.

    Thoug
    • I have my doubts.

      When Netflix first talked about cracking down on customers sharing their accounts loads of "experts" on /r/news on Reddit were quite certain that such a move would tank Netflix.

      I think I read about a month ago that the move greatly helped revenue problems Netflix had.

      • Re:Netflix is all but deceased (Score:4, Interesting)

        by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2023 @11:34AM (#63699258)
        I think Netflix has just become the "default" streaming service for a lot of people and they buy it/keep it because of that. It's like cable TV, just something people felt they needed even if they really didn't get much value out of it for the price as they should.
        • Interesting point.

        • no, is more than this:
          .
          over the last year, big service have tried to monetize themselves to stop the bleeding - after HBO and Amazon both cut as metric shti ton of content, and Disney doubled prices while freezing all new series acquisitions, it was pretty easy for the existing powers (hulu and Netflix)To clean-up

          WHEN you're The ONLY providers WITH A PROVEN WORKING SERVICE MODEL,ITS EASY TO PERSEVERE LONG-TERM,

      • I guess people can read [letmegooglethat.com].

      • They still fell short for the quarter [reuters.com] (don't trust the headline in the URL, it's since been updated on the site)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      There already wasn't enough new content on Netflix to make spending even $9.95 a month for service worthwhile. Thanks to the writer's strike, I'd imagine that this will only get worse over the next 9 months as new seasons of content get delayed.

      • I guess the 230 million people that subscribe currently have found enough content to justify it, and Netflix is not nearly as affected by the writer's strike, as much of their content is produced outside the United States, and is unaffected by SAG-AFTRA.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          much of their content is produced outside the United States

          That's mostly what I've been watching these past few years, and there's enough of it for the amount of time spent viewing. For what, the monthly price of a large pizza with the works?

        • Actually, SAG-AFTRA have taken the old-school tasters route and have been harassing and intimidating non-US productions to cease as well. How successful they are has varied. The BBC is having none of it and is business-as-usual, so the next series of Doctor Who is not in jeopardy. But if you google for something like: "uk production sag strike" you'll find that there are a number of overseas productions where SAG-AFTRA *have* succeeded in forcing productions to cease.

          According to this one, Deadpool 3 and

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

            According to this one, Deadpool 3 and Wicked are two examples... both are (were) being made in the UK. But SAG-AFTRA managed to bully them into shutting down anyway:

            Because when your UK production is running under SAG-AFTRA contracts imported into the UK rather than Equity contracts [variety.com] native to the UK, a SAG-AFTRA strike becoming imported into the UK should be super unsurprising?

  • Expecting everything to remain static is unreasonable. Plans change in all subscriptions, both in price and general availability. I get "premium" Netflix. If the day comes that they intend to put ads in that, I'll move on. I won't complain about it - I'll simply walk away. A giant like Netflix is going to meander through it's offerings, trying to find the sweet spot. The public will sort it out with them.

    According to Netflix, they run about 4 minutes of ads per hour. While I'm no apologist, the only one hou

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tx ( 96709 )

      I was going to ask how bad are the ads on the ad-supported tier, but I guess you've answered my question. If I was going to sign up for Netflix at all, I'd try the ad-supported tier, for the price difference between that and the Standard plan, 4 minutes of ads per hour sounds tolerable. Obviously some people hate ads a lot more than I do.

      • I'm still in the no ads camp. 0 minutes per hour, or pound sand. I go out of my way to avoid ads even for things that are free.

      • I don't know if this is still true, since I haven't watched actual broadcast TV shows in a few years, but for a while the average was around 16 minutes per hour. An "hour" drama would net out at 44 minutes of content. That puts Netflix at 25% of that ad footprint.

        I think a lot of people are in your position. The ads are a good moment to refresh your beverage or hit the head - especially since you can pause it if the ad isn't long enough. And sometimes - every once in a while - you see an ad that is to your

      • Ads are not tolerable when I pay, simple as that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      4 minutes per hour is pretty low ad load. Prime time US network TV runs about 20 minutes or more per hour. Daytime and syndication hours can be even higher. Cable news networks have insane ad loads. The big question is will they keep it low. My guess is it will creep up year over year .

      • I haven't timed it, but PlutoTV seems to be in-line with broadcast TV ad load.

        I do really love that PlutoTV exists, but, my god, the ads make it unwatchable pretty quickly. Mostly, it's the lack of variety in the ads that is the big problem. But that also seems to be the case with broadcast TV too (I still watch the local OTA news broadcast in the evening).

  • So, it's broadcast TV but you get to pay for the privilage. Only benefit I guess is you can choose what you want when you want.. bit I also had a DVR back in the day that recorded what I wanted AND removed the adds so take me back to 1999 I guess.
    • Cable makes you pay for the privilege and has been infested with ads since forever.
      • Cable, yes. I'm talking about OTA broadcast. I guess it's true that very few people these days use that but it's there and you've never needed to pay for it except for putting up an antenna.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by CQDX ( 2720013 )

      I tried that with Plex's DVR feature and an OTA antenna to record classics. The quality is is good but I noticed that many movies where chopped up, missing scenes either to fit into the time slot or cut out by censors. I ended up using Pirate Bay...

  • I long ago decided NOT to pay for subscription services forever. I toggle between Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and maybe one or two others, watch what I want, and then cancel. I often subscribe one day, and cancel the next, so I won't forget.

  • So basically, everyone started downgrading their plans because there is no point in paying for four screens if you can't actually use four screens due to the new household sharing rule.

  • Netflix is dealing with inflation like anyone else.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Inflation is a funny word for greed

    • Oh yeah? Netflix is dealing with over 50% inflation? And don't forget they've been increasing the cost of their plans for the last decade, too.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        Yes, inflation is that high. Over the course of the past three years, the price of Pepsi doubled from 7 USD for a case (24 355 mL cans) to 14 USD for a case.

  • I found another option deep in the Bay. Tis a treasure trove of booty, but you have to keep your wits and steady your VPN.

  • Third option (Score:3)

    by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2023 @01:07PM (#63699518)

    "Now your two options are to pay $5.50 more per month for the "Standard" plan, or otherwise suffer through constant ad interruptions with what's now been dubbed "Standard with ads.""

    I chose the third option, cancel the service.

    • > I chose the third option, cancel the service.

        And get outside in Nature.

      Or if you have no Nature where you live get out of your prison.

      Don't fall for Bread and Circuses.

    • Uh, if you already had Basic, this will mean you lose it, instead of keeping the cheaper service. And if you didn't have Basic, you were already paying more, you just lost the option to pay less. Your "option" is nonsensical; refusing to sign up makes sense, but for existing customers, there's no added incentive to cancel.
    • I also decided to choose the third option and cancel the service. I wasn't watching a lot of Netflix anyway and with having to pay even more for it, I thought I would rather do something else for free. Now I have more time to spend with my dog instead of watching the Netflix series. And when there is something that I really want to watch on Netflix, I jus go to my friend who still has it and we watch it together. I definitely do not regret canceling my subscription and I probably won't go back to it, even i

  • Two major problems with the new choices (Score:3)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2023 @01:54PM (#63699660)

    1. The "ads tier" does NOT give you access to all the content.

    2. If you're single, you need to either get ads and a limited library, or pay for a second screen you're never going to use.

    On top of that, as far as I'm aware, all the older shows such as Star Trek: TNG, DS9, etc are only available in 480p, maybe 720p at best. So I'd be shelling out more money for 1080p that's not available on the shows I want to watch.

    So which percentage of their userbase has Netflix failed to take into account? If they won't re-instante my basic plan when I try to return, I'm never going to subscribe again. So instead of seeing more money from me, they'll never get a dime ever again. I'm not going to pay more for Netflix than the price of Disney+ which are offering much more (and "better") content with less limitations. Talk about a boneheaded move by the bean counters over at Netflix.

    The more they squeeze, the more they lose. Idiots.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by flogger ( 524072 )
      The only Star Trek on Netflix is a couple movies made in the last few years. Any remaining good content will be stripped away soon.

  • My kingdom for an ad skipping plugin!

  • Netflix *new* content is not that good.
    Amazon Prime for me is better, especially for the old MGM content but I have to admit some of their content is getting stale; except "The Boys." Yeah If I were the CEO I'd wonder where $7B/yr in production costs are going as well.

    I also have Parmount+, and Max too.

    I can't watch it all, I have a life. If you're wrapped up spending $15 for Netflix, make another choice.

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