Netflix Basic with Ads streaming launches in November

Starting in November, Netflix will finally roll out its new ad-supported tier for just a few bucks a month, yet another sign that the onetime disruptive upstart streaming service has slowly become a cable package by another name.

Netflix announced today that its new Basic with Ads tier is slated to launch on November 3rd, 2022, for $6.99 in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the UK. In exchange for making you watch an average of four to five ads per hour that run anywhere from 15–30 seconds, Basic with Ads will give subscribers access to a large swath of Netflix’s programming but not the platform’s full catalog.

A small selection of television shows and movies will not be available to Basic with Ads subscribers due to licensing restrictions that Netflix says it’s currently working on. Additionally, Basic with Ads subscribers will not be able to download content onto their devices, and video quality is capped at 720p / HD.

During a press conference about the new tier, Netflix was careful to explain that while Basic with Ads is priced competitively with some of its streaming competition, the launch price might not necessarily be what the tier costs in the future. This would track given Netflix’s history of price hikes.

It’s not at all surprising that Netflix is (seemingly) already thinking about how much more it can charge people to watch the sort of ads that drove them from terrestrial TV to streaming services in the first place. But what’s ultimately going to determine just what becomes of Netflix’s Basic with Ads is whether the offer’s something people actually sign up for when it’s available next month.