Netflix ending long-time plan

People who have subscribed to the Netflix Basic plan for $11.99/month will be having to make a choice sometime this year. That plan is being phased out, and subscribers will have to opt for a different plan.

Netflix stopped offering it to new subscribers last summer. For existing subscribers with that plan, anyone who switched to a different plan couldn't switch back to it. But those that had it and simply kept it were okay. That changes beginning later this year, according to a recent shareholder report from Netflix

In their most recent earnings report, the company said it will phase that plan out and force those subscribers to choose a different plan, either the ad-supported plan, or one of the higher priced ad-free plans.

Scaling our ads business represents an opportunity to tap into significant new revenue and profit pools over the medium to longer term. In Q4‘23, like the quarter before, our ads membership increased by nearly 70% quarter over quarter, supported by improvements in our offering (e.g., downloads) and the phasing out of our Basic plan for new and rejoining members in our ads markets. The ads plan now accounts for 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in our ads markets and we’re looking to retire our Basic plan in some of our ads countries, starting with Canada and the UK in Q2 and taking it from there. On the advertiser side, we continue to improve the targeting and measurement we offer our customers.

There is no firm date mentioned, apart from beginning second quarter in Canada and the UK, but it is happening.

My Streaming Life has only recently retuned Netflix to the service rotation, so I haven't had the $12/month Basic ad-free plan available for a while. It's unfortunate that others are losing it, but this is no surprise.