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Netflix Plans to Charge $7 to $9 for Ad-Supported Plan

I personally find myself on Netflix less and less as the years have gone. The quality has gone down significantly. Personally, my favorite is HBO but the wife's is Disney. Suffice to say, we don't spend a lot of time on Netflix. If T-Mobile didn't include it for free in their cell phone magenta max plan I'd likely cancel it.

I just feel like they have slowly cancelled/ended some of the best shows I have ever seen and replaced them with staged reality TV shows like love is blind. Not knocking you if you like the show, but its really not in the same league as shows that made the streaming company huge.
 
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$7-9 is not much of a discount.

That said, the reason I cancelled my Netflix account isn't because of the cost - it's because the content became crap. Back in the day, they were more selective and almost everything seemed interesting (more like HBO is); now it's like everyone in Hollywood just sees the 🤑 they can get from Netflix, and the standards have dropped immensely.

There are far too many "reality" shows; which I have never ever liked, while all the shows I did like got cancelled before they reached a satisfying conclusion. I noticed that even if I saw something interesting on Netflix, I would immediately damper my expectations and tell myself not to get immersed in the story; it would probably get cancelled anyway.

A $7-9 ad-supported tier is not going to cause me to resubscribe. And at 480p? Literally zero chance. Even TikTok videos are 1080p.
 
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arvinsim said:
The sad thing that is other companies will eventually do the same thing, even Apple.
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I am sure if Apple can ever get as big as Netflix or Disney, sure they will. Right now they are subsidizing the hell out of Apple TV+ just to try and attract customers. For sure the $4.99/month isn't meant to be sustainable.
 
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springsup said:
That said, the reason I cancelled my Netflix account isn't because of the cost - it's because the content became crap. Back in the day, they were more selective and almost everything seemed interesting (more like HBO is); now it's like everyone in Hollywood just sees the 🤑 they can get from Netflix, and the standards have dropped immensely.
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I agree with this. Although it hurt their quality, I think they focus more on quantity now in hopes of keeping customers longer term. For instance, I buy HBO Max for like 1-2 months. Same time every year. Binge watch all my favorite shows new seasons, then cancel it.
 
MacRumors said:


Netflix's current lowest-priced plan is $9.99 per month in the United States, with the plan offering 480p streaming.
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sw1tcher said:
Apparently no one read the Bloomberg article because nowhere does it say that this ad-supported and discounted plan will be in 480p. Nowhere. Yet people here are assuming that it will be.
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Sorry about that bro dude man,
We're just going off what the MacRumors article states, maybe they got the insider knowledge, and YOU'RE the fool for not believing them ;)
 
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I bet they do the ad supported one for $8.99, then get rid of the normal $9.99 plan (it wouldn't surprise me if they increase the price of the other 2 plans as well)

I wonder if they'll also put in so many ads to try and annoy people into paying for the higher price tier!
 
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Article doesn't say it's 480p. Tbh that would be a deal breaker for me if so. But if they can offer at least HD streaming, ads and a low price, maybe I'll finally have a Netflix account year-round.
 
Star Brood said:
I mean, this is the reason why it was important to have one big, affordable player in the online industry. Why go through the trouble of pirating when you could have it all for ten bucks a month? It works for avid music fans.

They forget about piracy when they consider these prices and how much competition there is now. Everyone and their brother and their cat has a streaming service these days, and it all behaves differently or looks differently if you dare to travel abroad or share your account with your sibling.

I still buy my movies through iTunes (not that the last two year have been kind with the dearth of production). I know I won't have streaming services forever, but I will have those movies forever.
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The issue is that this arrangement was never going to be sustainable.

First, there are no barriers to entry. Any company with deep enough pockets can easily enter the streaming market and that’s precisely what happened. Each started bankrolling original content, as well as withholding past content behind their own paywall in a bid to attract subscribers. The biggest casualty has been Netflix who has lost a lot of older content over the years.

Second, creating video content is expensive. Netflix still isn’t profitable, and is at a disadvantage compared to companies like Disney and Apple who have the means to keep financing their video streaming platforms indefinitely (because they serve to add value to other ventures).

Heck, are any of the video streaming services even profitable?

I think Netflix finds itself between a rock and a hard place. They need money, and are losing subscribers, and there really isn’t much they can do short of raising prices or selling themselves to another tech giant like Microsoft.
 
Shanghaichica said:
I’m not paying anymore than I already pay. I think it’s £15.99 a month for 4K and 4 screens.
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That is shocking. I grudge paying the £15.99 for 4K HDR. Last month I went for the £10.99 option with 1080p and no HDR. 1080p was fine on my 4K screen but I missed HDR too much. Everything looked so dull.

The way things are right now Netflix will hike the price even further. I wouldn't be surprised to see it hit £17.99 or even £19.99/month if the predicted 18% inflation next year is true.

The line up could be (based on current 10.1% and predicted 18% inflation)

Basic - £7.99-8-99 (currently £6.99)
Standard - £11.99-12.99 (currently £10.99)
Premium - £17.99-19.99 (currently £15.99)

I don't know what they will charge for the ad tier. $7-9 is about £7.13-9.17 if you take into account 20% VAT. That'd put it right in line with the Basic tier. I suppose if they are making money off ads they could drop it to about £5.99. I can't see them going any lower.
 
480p hahaha. In a year or two they’ll up the price of the ad based tier by a £ or $ wherever you are and it’ll be 720p.
 
I hope some of these streaming services just die. It is way too complicated anymore and just total greed in the marketplace.

Now they are all getting into sports too, making even more confusing where to watch your local sports team. They are really alienating their most loyal sports audiences when they stream and not stay on the local or cable network station. For example, Cleveland Guardians were on Peackock, YouTube TV and AppleTV all in the last two weeks, instead of the local Bally Sports station. Try explaining to my 80 year old Dad and 83 year old Father-in-law, who are diehard fans, where the Guardians are playing and why they can’t watch them. Just stupid.
 
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easy4lif said:
I’m only going to stay till stranger things and umbrella academy ends, then I’m out!
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Pretty much the same sentiment here. I’m not interested in watching 480p on a 4K screen with ads peppered in like YouTube’s free tier.

Gone are the days of subscribing for Netflix in perpetuity. I will only subscribe when there’s a new season of the few shows I’m still vested in (Stranger Things, Witcher and maybe Umbrella Academy).
 
I’m not paying anymore than I already pay. I think it’s £15.99 a month for 4K and 4 screens.
krspkbl said:
That is shocking. I grudge paying the £15.99 for 4K HDR. Last month I went for the £10.99 option with 1080p and no HDR. 1080p was fine on my 4K screen but I missed HDR too much. Everything looked so dull.

The way things are right now Netflix will hike the price even further. I wouldn't be surprised to see it hit £17.99 or even £19.99/month if the predicted 18% inflation next year is true.

The line up could be (based on current 10.1% and predicted 18% inflation)

Basic - £7.99-8-99 (currently £6.99)
Standard - £11.99-12.99 (currently £10.99)
Premium - £17.99-19.99 (currently £15.99)

I don't know what they will charge for the ad tier. $7-9 is about £7.13-9.17 if you take into account 20% VAT. That'd put it right in line with the Basic tier. I suppose if they are making money off ads they could drop it to about £5.99. I can't see them going any lower.
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It’s not that I even care about the 4K it’s just that there are 4 of us at home and often 3 screens are in use at one time. However £20 is too much and I wouldn’t be willing to pay that.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Apparently no one read the Bloomberg article because nowhere does it say that this ad-supported and discounted plan will be in 480p. Nowhere. Yet people here are assuming that it will be.

My guess? $6.99 or $7.99 (same as the Disney+ with Ads plan) with ads, 1080p resolution, and limited to 1 stream at a time. Don't want ads? That'll be $9.99 for the basic plan (480p resolution and 1 stream at a time). Want no ads and a higher (1080p) resolution? That'll be $15.49 for the standard plan. Want even higher resolution and more than 2 streams? That'll be $19.99 for the premium plan.
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I highly doubt it will be 1080p as it will cannibalize into other plans. It's such a big jump from 480p in resolution and given the price gap, I would guess the most they offer is 720p - after all, that is their "standard" plan. I'm guessing this is like a free trial approach to entice you to upgrade to the full version. 480p + ads won't entice anything as it will be a miserable experience and look blurry even on a laptop but 720p+ads? Now we're approaching the experience of say spotify with ads (gives you a good experience but ads)

Imagine if the spotify ad tier sounded like a untuned radio station with all the fuzzy noise. they'd drop spotify all together. Just my thoughts
 
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sw1tcher said:
Apparently no one read the Bloomberg article because nowhere does it say that this ad-supported and discounted plan will be in 480p. Nowhere. Yet people here are assuming that it will be.
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😏 Guilty as charged, but I’m fine with making that assumption. I just don’t see them making an HD plan cheaper than the basic one, even with ads as a factor.
 
The people complaining about high prices are funny. I think in 5ish years, people will look back at this time and realize we were in a content 'golden age'. If you look at the amount of money spent by the streamers developing content vs. what households pay right now, the spend is completely unsustainable at the current subscription prices.

As VC/investment money dries up, we're about to see a huge pullback in the amount of money spent developing content, and/or subscription price increases across the board.
 
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Wokis said:
Article doesn't say it's 480p. Tbh that would be a deal breaker for me if so. But if they can offer at least HD streaming, ads and a low price, maybe I'll finally have a Netflix account year-round.
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Firstly, thank you for disagreeing with my factually correct comment ;)

Secondly.. here are further sources stating directly that it will be 480p

1. https://9to5mac.com/2022/07/19/netflix-ad-supported-plan-wont-have-full-catalog/

2. https://technave.com/gadget/Netflix...-streaming-to-only-480p-resolution-31352.html

3. https://headtopics.com/my/netflix-s...ing-to-only-480p-resolution-technave-29103972

xx
 
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