NETFLIX has started to phase out its cheapest ad-free plan – and customers are enraged.
This week, the company began notifying users they would have until July 13 to use the Basic plan, just months after hiking the price.
Frustrated users took to social media to announce they had canceled their Netflix subscriptions and urged others to do the same.
“I canceled my plan a while back. Haven’t looked back – there wasn’t enough valuable content on Netflix anyway,” one Reddit user declared.
“It is infuriating to me the number of people who just accept these price hikes and ads,” another wrote before proposing a call to action.
“If people actually canceled their accounts we could fight this c**p but of course most people won’t.”
The company announced it would be phasing out its Basic plan back in January.
The update came in its early 2024 earnings call, with the streaming giant revealing its intention to phase out the plan in countries where the Standard with Ads plan had been introduced.
The company provided no timeline other than announcing that it would start with the United Kingdom and Canada in the second quarter before “taking it from there.”
This development came just months after the streamer shared it would be raising prices for the first time in over a year.
The cost of the soon-defunct Basic plan jumped from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month in the United States following last October’s announcement.
The Premium plan also saw a $3 increase, bringing it to $22.99 per month.
Basic plan subscribers can now choose the cheaper Standard with Ads plan or the more expensive Standard or Premium 4K plans.
While Standard with Ads is the cheapest tier, coming in at $9.99 USD (£4.99 and $5.99 CAD), it has one serious drawback.
In addition to displaying ads before and during content, some films and shows are “locked” due to licensing restrictions.
When users attempt to access content marked with a padlock icon, they will be prompted to upgrade to a different plan to gain access.
“So…why do people bother sticking around to pay for ads?” one Redditor remarked.
“Can we please have more entertainment of our interests to go with these payments, and cut back on the diet of ads?”
UK subscribers can sign up for the Standard with Ads plan for £4.99 per month or shell out £10.99 per month for the Standard plan.
The Standard option offers 1080p streams, simultaneous viewing on two devices, and downloads on up to two devices.
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Canadian users fare the worst with the elimination of the Basic plan.
A Standard plan costs $16.49, compared to $9.99 for the Basic subscription. The cheaper option is, of course, the Standard with Ads plan at $5.99.
Despite its setbacks, Netflix announced that the ad-supported tier reached 40 million global monthly active users in May, up 5 million from the prior year.
