Netflix is Going To Take Away Its Cheapest Ad-Free Plan (theverge.com) 105
Although Netflix no longer allows new or returning members to sign up for the ad-free Basic subscription that costs $11.99 per month, company executives told investors while reporting its earnings results today that it's retiring the plan in some countries where ad-supported plans are available. It's starting with Canada and the UK in the second quarter of this year. From a report: That leaves subscribers with Netflix's $15.49 per month option as Netflix's cheapest ad-free plan. Going from $11.99 to $15.49 per month is a pretty big jump, and means there's really no middle ground for ad-free plans. Otherwise, subscribers will have to pay $6.99 per month for its ad-supported basic plan or $22.99 per month for the Premium tier. Netflix stopped letting new subscribers sign up for its Basic plan in Canada last year before rolling out the change to the US and UK.
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It's TURBO TIME!
Netflix Politics Is The Entertainment. (Score:2)
Forget those Series, Netflix politics itself is the entertainment.
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Even if there were good shows to watch, since we aren't in Covid lockdown any more I have a life. I would rather spend my time doing things like enjoying a meal or playing games (both computer and board types) in person with people rather than spending 30 hours a week passively watching a small screen. And there is plenty of books to read or interesting videos for free on Youtube for the few hours a week that I might want to just chill.
The cumulative savings from the various streaming service subs I had i
Re: The GOAT (Score:2)
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I just cant stand using Prime Video any more since they got rid of the "Free to me" filter. There are far too many ads for movies and shows they want to sell me for me to find browsing the selection of content Ive subscribed to pleasant at all.
Re: The GOAT (Score:2)
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Huh, maybe "free to me" is still available outside the US as I did check via an Internet search in case I was being clueless and they just moved the button and I found something with Amazon support confirming its absence.
Your suggestions are good advice though as those filters would result in mostly things that the user is subscribed to. Thanks for the tip!
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Why do these people always assume one can (or can't) afford this and that? It's not about being able to afford a cost, it's about whether the service is worth that $15.
One may be able to afford 100 Netflix subscriptions with their monthly spare money, it doesn't mean they should sink $15 into something that's worthless. Smart people stop the drain and sink that sum in something else that brings more entertainment.
Re: The GOAT (Score:2)
I try to pay according to the value something offers me. And no, most of us cannot afford to pay $15 for every possible streaming service. It's something we normally pick and choose according to personal preference and perceived value. And every time Netflix changes the deal is an excellent time to reevaluate our choices.
People still subscribe to Netflix? (Score:1)
I know I left and everyone I know has left. Is anybody subscribed?
Re:People still subscribe to Netflix? (Score:5, Informative)
I know I left and everyone I know has left. Is anybody subscribed?
According to their numbers, they added 13 million new subscribers [marketwatch.com] in the last quarter.
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I'd imagine that most of those new subscriptions are outside the US. People around where I iive are getting tired of Netflix's BS.
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I'd imagine that most of those new subscriptions are outside the US. People around where I iive are getting tired of Netflix's BS.
I would say this is as good a theory as any. When you factor in that people in the US are sick of being wallet-raped by ever-escalating prices everywhere, looking at Netflix's continued price increases for continuously poorer content? It wasn't a tough decision for us to cancel late last year. I know a lot of people that canceled in the last few months with them not only increasing prices, but announcing that the plan is to *KEEP* increasing prices, while adding ads, and probably more ads, to the lower tier
Re:People still subscribe to Netflix? (Score:5, Interesting)
I know I left and everyone I know has left. Is anybody subscribed?
According to their numbers, they added 13 million new subscribers [marketwatch.com] in the last quarter.
In a way, this is sort of like Google ad money. I've never clicked on a Google ad in my entire life, and I don't know anyone who clicks on Google ads. However, Google is able to find enough "other" people to draw in $100 billion per year.
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Ads is essentially FOMO and too many people profiteering, so nobody is willing to admit that they do not work.
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In order to make money, Google doesn't have to convince users to do anything. They only have to convince the people who pay for the advertising that it will work.
Re:People still subscribe to Netflix? (Score:4, Insightful)
and I don't know anyone who clicks on Google ads
That is because they are disguised as search results
This is because... (Score:2)
This is because people mistake themselves and the relatively small number of people they know as representative of everybody when that couldn't possibly be true.
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Same argument for people who didn't want to pay $15 a month for an MMO. Where do you think the money comes from to operate it as an ongoing concern month after month? Investments?
Re:People still subscribe to Netflix? (Score:5, Interesting)
I know I left and everyone I know has left. Is anybody subscribed?
For the moment, but before last July, I was paying $9.99, and they cranked it up to $11.99, and now, just six months later, they're saying it's going to be $15.49. That's a 55% increase in 6 months. Meanwhile, I'm finding fewer and fewer shows to watch. I think when this forced rate increase happens, I'm done with them.
Subscriber since August 2014.
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At least there's profit margins ava
Re:People still subscribe to Netflix? (Score:4, Insightful)
I know I left and everyone I know has left. Is anybody subscribed?
For a long time, Netflix was the only subscription we held onto year-round. But we finally cancelled several months ago; now it's just part of the "subscribe for a couple months, binge what you want to see, then cancel" rotation like pretty much every other streaming service.
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Giddy-yup ! Exactly what I do.
And, anecdotally, I'm hearing of more and more people trying this approach.
Let's see if they attempt to deter our behaviour. Perhaps by making the monthly rate significantly more expensive than 1/12 of an annual rate?
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Let's see if they attempt to deter our behaviour. Perhaps by making the monthly rate significantly more expensive than 1/12 of an annual rate?
That is exactly what will happen in a few years, with all these services. Monthly fee will go to $35, but you get a 30% discount after 3 months or when you sign up for a year.
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I know I ended up dropping them about 3-4 years ago. I remember when they were at their best - they had that deal so they had a good amount of the older content from everybody, their preference algorithms, based on your ratings, could find stuff you liked well, and generally nailed it on shows I watched for the number of stars I'd give them.
Then the deal went away, but the algorithm could still find me alternate stuff I'd still like.
But eventually that trickled away, and they got rid of the individualized
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I never was and pretty much getting less and less motivated to do so.
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Please keep us informed if you do indeed decide to subscribe. It's important.
ads (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ads (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty much this.. If i'm a paying customer (for now, at least) and they still want to foist their shitty ads on me, well I guess it's time to spit on my hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to recklessly infringe intellectual property rights.
It's like content providers learned absolutely nothing from the late 90's. If your competition is literally free as well as more useful / convenient; you might, MIGHT want to rethink making your offerings as unpalatable as possible by shitting it up with ads, or otherwise adding barriers for your customers/
Re:ads (Score:4, Insightful)
Pay $3 more to avoid shitty ads!
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i'll pay $12 less and have zero ads =P
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Fyi, I just paid 3$ more to Amazon to continue avoiding ads.
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These days I can't even be bothered to keep track of which streaming service works with my TV and who is being an asshat today. I just pirate stuff, and if it's good I buy the BluRay when that comes out so I can support the show.
Streaming, like subscription TV, is just too much hassle to even bother with now.
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>"Why would anyone pay to watch ads?"
Right. That is what absolutely baffles me. I *detest* ads and can't imagine watching programs with unskippable content. MY PAYING for being forced to watch unskippable content is way beyond not-happening. I am fascinated people can even tolerate that nowadays.
I get about half my video content from Cable TV (and the other half on YouTube/Rumble/Spotify). But the cable content is *all* recorded on TiVo, where I watch in HD, with full surround sound on every channel
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Re:ads (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure the ad supported tiers primarily exist to scare people into paying more for the ad free tiers.
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It turns out they actually make more money from the ads than the price difference from the ad-free tier. The streamers have discovered that ads were so oversaturated that by restricting their ad volume their ad rates go up faster than the ad times go down.
Redefining Value (Score:2, Interesting)
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Why would anyone pay to watch ads?
These streaming services are the new cable. People put up with the ads because the plans are cheaper and they’re already used to the ads. And for people who value time less than money, it may be worth it. For the sort of crowd here that tends to have more money than time, the opposite is true.
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Binge (Australia) had a Black Friday offer of $2/month for 3 months; their ad tier. ... after all, $2 wasn't even worth considering.
I signed-up
Oh my! There were so many ads! I persevered for a few nights and then had to cancel. I couldn't bear to watch.
That experience has scared me off any ad tier. I think I'd prefer to have a single, ad free service at any given time: devour everything of interest and then move on, like a good little frugal locust.
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Pretty much the smartphone industry in a nutshell.
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Promises, promises. (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember when Cable TV and Video rentals and Movie Theaters were "Ad Free"
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>"I remember when Cable TV and Video rentals and Movie Theaters were "Ad Free"
I am pretty old at this point and don't remember such a time. CATV ad-free channels didn't last long at all, except for the premium ones. I think they disappeared before cable came to our neighborhood. As for theaters, even in my childhood, movies had long previews and concession stand ads. Yes, it did get worse and worse. But they were always there.
I don't mind ads, PSA's, previews, whatever, as long as they are skippable
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>"I remember when Cable TV and Video rentals and Movie Theaters were "Ad Free"
I am pretty old at this point and don't remember such a time. CATV ad-free channels didn't last long at all, except for the premium ones. I think they disappeared before cable came to our neighborhood. As for theaters, even in my childhood, movies had long previews and concession stand ads. Yes, it did get worse and worse. But they were always there.
I don't mind ads, PSA's, previews, whatever, as long as they are skippable/zoom-past-able. Before TiVo, I prerecorded everything on VCR for just that reason. Before that, well, it was horrible. I would hit mute and do something else... ANYTHING else. Bathroom, clean, read. Then resume. I hated it then, and I will be damned if I ever go back to that hell.
Video rentals were from the 90's and early 2000's before the age of torrents. I'm not sure if they ever introduced ads, but it was less than 20 years ago (at least in Australia).
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Way, way back in the day - I used to love AMC (American Movie Classics). They'd show all sorts of great old movies. They had a host - Bob Dorian - who'd spend a couple minutes ahead of the show telling you some interesting stories about the particular movie - but after that, the entire movie would run without interruption.
Overall I prefer this decade to the 1980s... but television was certainly better back then.
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Commercial breaks on TV shows also used to be shorter in the 80's as well. Half hour slot TV shows were roughly 25 minutes long as opposed to today where they are closer to 22. Those extra 3 minutes of commercials really do make a difference.
Also, I had completely forgotten about AMC but absolutely, that station was awesome!
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Commercial breaks on TV shows also used to be shorter in the 80's as well. Half hour slot TV shows were roughly 25 minutes long as opposed to today where they are closer to 22.
Random tangent, but - back when my daughter was young, I'd often watch Spongebob Squarepants with her. The half-hour show was typically split into two 15-minute segments. I remember one where Patrick and Spongebob had some scheme or other going on, and Spongebob says something like "this will last forever!" - whereupon Squidward deadpanned "I give it 11 minutes".
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Hahaha. I've always enjoyed a little well done breaking of the third wall.
I missed out on that show as I never had kids and it seemed weird to me to watch it as an adult without. I hear from a few buddies who had kids though that the show hit well for adults as well as for kids at least in parts.
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The first 2-3 seasons were pretty good - but (as happens with many shows) it really fell off a cliff afterward.
BTW one of the advantages of being a parent is it gives you an excuse to watch kids' cartoons haha.
Get You Some Encryption & An Eyepatch. (Score:1)
Pegleg and talking parrot is optional.
Already dropped.... (Score:2)
I dropped them when they raised their price from $6 to $7 or something like that. Screw those guys.
In a couple years (Score:1)
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Considering between ATSC 2.0 and ATSC 3.0 OTA broadcasts, I get 50+ channels for free, yes, it is more expensive!
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The advances in ATSC are not something I'm looking forward to. The FCC is allowing broadcasters to encrypt the signal and include DRM. They're going to use broadcast TV frequencies to deliver pay-per-view content.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC_3.0
Company Gets You Hooked, Raises Prices (Score:3)
I'm not even mad. I'm just surprised so many people are "surprised" a for-profit company would take steps to obtain.... profit.
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I am not sure their strategy will give them profits longer-term. Looks to me they are capitalizing on the name only these days and that cannot last.
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I suspect some of the smaller players will merge or be eaten by a larger fish.
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Netflix and Chill, from the people who brought you Purple Drank...
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netflix and chill is the exact opposite of watching netflix
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Netflix got themselves to the point where there's an entire cultural term (Netflix and chill), then they enforce password sharing restrictions and raise prices. I'm not even mad. I'm just surprised so many people are "surprised" a for-profit company would take steps to obtain.... profit.
What's particularly funny about Netflix is that they started to do the funny business right around the time people started to complain that their content was getting less and less interesting. About the only things that were enjoyable to watch on Netflix during our last couple months with them (last year) were the foreign made shows they carry. Most of those don't have the Hollywood glitz, but they also don't have the Hollywood design-by-committee boring blahs. But you can only watch so many foreign languag
You don't need Netflix (Score:2)
Learn to do without. It's not just Netflix. If you don't have the power to abstain, they have power over you.
Ahoy! (Score:3)
This is just Netflix's way of asking normal people to pirate their stuff. Once you take away the reasonable ways / amounts to pay for their content, what's left is that a whole lot more people will end up just taking it, or at least the relatively small amount that is still worth watching.
They are vastly overestimating their value. They don't even bother integrating with Apple TV's Up Next list, and they are the only streaming service to not bother. Their arrogance shows through in many ways - including not making much in the way of new decent shows lately.
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Amazon video is doing the same thing.
Canceled last price hike (Score:1)
It's only going to get worse. If you're currently a Netflix subscriber, expect more and more price increases.
I. will. not. watch. ads (Score:2)
period!
No exceptions
Way to milk the serfs of every penny, Netfux. (Score:2)
Who cares? (Score:1)
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What was their hit a decade ago?
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Stranger Things, 2016, almost a decade now!
And... (Score:3)
the enshitiffication of the internet continues apace.
How does this even work? (Score:3)
I never understood the point of advertising at the people who can't even afford the ad-free tier.
Re:How does this even work? (Score:5, Funny)
You clearly don't understand the power of Brawndo.
Hint: ...it has electrolytes!
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I never understood the point of advertising at the people who can't even afford the ad-free tier.
It's full of the kind of people who say "advertising doesn't affect me" as they scoff down a Krispy Kreme(TM) followed by a Coca Cola(TM) whilst browsing their Apple(TM) Iphone 27 Extra Locked Down edition.
Advertising works best on the naive, greedy and stupid. Those too tight to pay extra or too dumb to pirate are just those kind of people.
We're heading further towards the net of the 90s (Score:3)
Same amount of useful content.
Let's face it, people, what used to be a pretty decent experience is rotting away. One half of the crap becomes unusable by ads and less and less user friendliness (aka "enshittification"), the other half simply becomes unusable by trying to gauge through the nose for everything you might want to do.
At this point, it's maybe time to stop and ponder for a moment whether these sites have outstayed their welcome. Or rather, since we cannot really make them leave, whether we should just ignore them.
I am old. I was around in the 1990s, before social media, even before dot.com. Yes, it was the dark ages of the web. Lots of things you wanted you had to dig for because even search engines were crap. Yes, even crappier than they are today. Less so because of SEO, more because the algos sucked even worse. And of course there was less content. And way, way less professional content.
But what worked was that people offered their services because they wanted to. That was probably not the most userfriendly experience, but at least it wasn't a PITA to use because some marketing goofball thought it's sensible to make you jump through thousands of hoops to get what you want and have to see all those sweet, sweet upsell opportunities first, the reason was just that it was some amateur making the page rather than a pro.
The difference to today is that there's way more "pros" now. The tools to be are there. The APIs and frameworks to create a sensible homepage are there.
Maybe it is time to start a renaissance of the "good old days". Without large corporations dictating what we may and may not do, see and experience on the net. Yes, that means that we will have to create our stuff ourselves again. And yes, just like back then, at best 10% of the user base will do it.
But that may well be enough.
Re: We're heading further towards the net of the 9 (Score:2)
I only disagree with you about an old web site being a PITA to use because it was made by an amateur. Even back then, I found the web pages made by 'Pros' were more of a PITA, because the 'Pros' would include tricks that only worked on the same version of browser that they had.
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True, true. A good deal of the PITA on the internet back then was due to the non-standard behaviour of IE6 and its market share of somewhere around 95%, which meant that every webpage had to cater to this POS.
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Surfing the web in the 90's was way better than today. Sure it was unpolished, but that was part of the charm. Today the web is a souless, digital shopping mall. Whereas in the 90's websites were passion projects. People would put up pages about their favourite band, or hobby and almost always had a link page to their favourite random sites. This would lead you down some awesome rabbit holes. Today, everything is just a walled garden approach. Do people even go to sites outside of the major social me
New Cable (Score:3)
Eventually it will be like cable TV. You pay $30/month for basic service, you pay an extra $10/month to remove ads, and if you want to watch the best shows you pay an extra $50/month for the privilege. And you'll have to call and wait on hold for an hour to cancel.
Price inflation (Score:2)
Man they've had some serious price inflation in the past 5-7 years. In 2017 basic was $8, two years later they bumped it to $9, and only five years after that it's at $12 and they're retiring it - most likely because they think they can force people to more profitable options even though they're already paying 50% more than they did 7 years ago (and it's probably nearly all digital delivery now with no mail fees). Wild.
They are admitting ads are worth more than money (Score:3)
cutting off series after 2 seasons (Score:3)
Netflix likes to list dead series in its suggestions. They bumped up the price a few times for the equivalent service. Drops older films and seems to replace them with really confusing Korean films or really corny Indian dramas. They really are pushing to have me cancel after 15 years. Is it really that difficult to run a profitable streaming business, all you have to do is stop burning piles of money on producing niche shows you are going to cancel. At least they stopped making unwatchable Adam Sandler films.
Expensive (Score:2)
blah , blah, they all suck (Score:1)