Netflix wants to launch its cheaper subscription on November 1 in the US, UK, France, Germany and Canada. Sources reported this to the American magazine diverse. Advertisers had already been notified by Netflix of the plans.

Launching in November will be much faster than expected. In July, the company said the new subscription wouldn’t be offered until early 2023. However, Disney+ will launch its new $8 per month subscription with ads on December 8 in the US, after which the regular ad-free subscription will become more expensive.

The new Netflix subscription will cost between $7 and $9 per month in the US, making it $1 to $3 cheaper than the basic subscription. European prices are not yet clear. The cheapest Netflix subscription in our country currently costs €8 per month, subscribers do not receive HD picture quality and can only watch one stream at a time. The Standard subscription costs €12 per month and the Premium subscription costs €16 per month.

Battle for subscribers

With cheaper subscriptions with ads, Netflix and Disney hope to retain existing subscribers as well as attract new customers who find streaming services too expensive. For years, Netflix has said it doesn’t endorse this model, but that situation changed after the streaming service lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers this year.

4 minutes of commercials per hour

Netflix and Disney each want to show about 4 minutes of ads per hour with new subscriptions. Netflix doesn’t want to show ad breaks at the end of an episode or movie, and like to keep some new series ad-free for weeks after release. The company also wants to prevent people from seeing the same commercials over and over and programs aimed at children will not contain commercials.

Several restrictions apply to the cheaper Netflix subscription. For example, there is no possibility to watch movies and series offline by downloading them to the device. Netflix has acknowledged that the cheap subscription will also have a smaller content offering. This is because the company has to pay more to some movie studios and producers to show their movies and series in this new model.

a race

Many of Netflix and Disney’s competitors have had cheaper advertising subscriptions for some time. In the Netherlands, the streaming service RTL Videoland has also been offering this since 2020. In the US, Hulu and HBO Max also have similar options.

Viaplay, which offers Formula 1 and the Premier League in the Netherlands, says it has no plans for a cheaper subscription with ads.