After hinting it would do away with its lowest-priced, ad-free subscription tier, Netflix is finally putting its Basic plan out to pasture.
The company, on its earnings call Thursday afternoon, announced it was sunsetting the $11.99 per month option. Users who want to avoid ads will now have to pay either $15.49 per month for the Standard plan or $22.99 per month for the Premium plan.
Netflix began to telegraph this move last year, when it said it would no longer allow users to sign up for the Basic ad-free plan. Existing customers, however, were told they could continue to enjoy the rate for a while. In January of 2024, the company did away with the plan in the U.K. And Canada. Now the U.S. (And France) are seeing it disappear.
The Basic option came with limitations. Users, for instance, could only stream on a single device and could only download content to a single phone or tablet. It was the plan for singles. The Standard plan lets users stream in more than one place at a time, but that comes at a premium of more than 50%.
Ad-supported plans are more affordable, but will force viewers to watch roughly four minutes of ads per hour, with some slight restrictions on the content that can be viewed, due to licensing restrictions.
The elimination of the lowest-priced, ad-free option follows Netflix’s crack down on password sharing. The company is in the midst of a push to increase its revenues and subscriptions after they began to taper off at the end of the pandemic.
Netflix reported a record 277.65 million subscribers Thursday. A growing number of those are opting for the “standard with ads” plan, which costs $6.99 per month. Sign-ups for that increased 34% in the second quarter.
