Netflix is discontinuing its Basic subscription in several countries. The cheapest subscription, with advertisements, for watching Netflix will therefore disappear. This concerns the countries Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. These are countries where a subscription with ads is available, which probably makes it a more attractive option for those who do not want to pay too much for their streaming services.
Netflix Basic
In the Netherlands we do not have the cheapest subscription with advertising: we can choose from three subscriptions: Basic, Standard and Premium. Basic costs 7.99 euros per month and lets you watch Netflix on 1 device at the same time and also download it on 1 device, with the image quality being HD (720p). The picture and sound quality are also good. Standard offers you ‘great’ image and sound quality for 11.99 euros, with a resolution of 1080p (full HD) and the option to watch on two devices simultaneously and to download two.
Premium at 15.99 euros is the most expensive subscription, which allows you to download on 6 devices, watch on 4 devices simultaneously and has the best image and sound quality. There is spatial audio available and the resolution of Ultra HD (4K) and HDR. Netflix has now said that it will only remove the Basic subscription from countries that also have an advertising subscription, so for the time being the Netherlands seems to continue with Basic. It will also take some time before Basic disappears from the UK, US and Canada: it will remain this quarter, it will be removed in the second quarter (and initially only in the UK and Canada).
Ads
Americans won’t be happy with it: basic costs $11.99 and standard is $15.49 per month. Maybe just watch commercials for $6.99 a month? In any case, you are not alone in this: 23 million people seem to use the Flix advertising subscription. In any case, Netflix is still showing growth: an additional 13.1 million people were added in the last quarter of 2023, bringing the total worldwide Netflix subscribers to 247 million: and those are only the account holders, not the profiles.
The question is whether such an advertising subscription would also come to the Netherlands soon, or whether Netflix wants to keep it that way for a while with its basic subscription. We think there is a market for it, especially because people are increasingly cutting the cable and only opting for streaming services: that can add up to a lot of money every month if you use a lot of them. A cheaper subscription of 6 to 7 euros per month would be more attractive, even if that means that you have to watch 4 minutes of advertising per hour.
Streaming service with advertising in the Netherlands
So far, no international streaming service has dared to offer advertising subscription in the Netherlands, although Amazon Prime Video sometimes shows advertisements for its own programs before you play something. Disney+ would like to introduce an advertising subscription in Europe, but so far in the Netherlands you can only choose the one standard subscription without advertising, for 10.99 euros per month. The Dutch Videoland has already introduced such a subscription: the basic subscription of 4.99 euros per month shows commercials.
