Netflix launching ad-supported tier in Australia next month — pricing and start date

It isn’t quite the deal we thought it would be

The much anticipated — or I guess discussed — ad-supported tier of Netflix is launching in Australia next month. And it won’t be free, despite the likes of YouTube or 10Play / 9Now / 7Plus being ad-supported but totally free to watch.

Netflix ‘Basic with ads’ will cost AU$6.99 a month and launch November 4, while the existing plans of Basic (AU$10.99), Standard (AU$16.99) and Premium (AU$22.99) will remain.

Alongside the launch of Basic with Ads, which streams in 720p to 1 device at a time, Netflix will also be upgrading the Basic tier to 720p. Standard plans stream will still stream at up to 1080p on up to 2 devices at a time, while Premium streams at 4K on up to 4 devices at a time.

But the tier isn’t exactly just Netflix with ads. Some shows won’t be available at all, due to the way streaming rights were in the past sometimes split up between ad-supported services and premium subscription services.

Basic with ads will also not support offline viewing.

Here’s how Netflix describes the changes:

Basic with Ads offers all the features people expect from Netflix’s Basic plan, with a few differences:

What stays the same: A wide variety of great TV shows and movies; personalised viewing experience; a wide range of TV and mobile devices; change or cancel your plan at any time.

What’s different: Video quality up to 720p/HD (now for both our Basic with Ads and Basic plans); average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour; a limited number of movies and TV shows won’t be available due to licensing restrictions, which we’re working on; no ability to download titles.

In short, Basic with Ads is everything people love about Netflix at a lower price, with a few ads in between. Starting in November, signing up will be easy — visit Netflix.com and register with your email, date of birth and gender to get started.

Basic with Ads also represents an exciting opportunity for advertisers — the chance to reach a diverse audience, including younger viewers who increasingly don’t watch linear TV, in a premium environment with a seamless, high-resolution ad experience.

Ad format: At launch, ads will be 15 or 30 seconds in length and will play before and during shows and movies.

Advertiser controls: To help advertisers reach the right audience and ensure our ads are more relevant for consumers, we’ll offer broad targeting capabilities by country and genre (e.g. action, drama, romance, sci-fi). Advertisers will also be able to prevent their ads from appearing on content that might be inconsistent with their brand (e.g. sex, nudity or graphic violence).

Verification tools: we have partnerships with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to verify the viewability and traffic validity of our ads starting in Q1 2023.

Basic with Ads will launch just 6 months after we first announced the option of a lower priced ads tier. None of this would have been possible without our team’s hard work or Microsoft’s extraordinary partnership. The switch from linear is happening at an ever increasing speed, with streaming now surpassing free-to-air and pay TV in the US. We’re confident that with Netflix starting at $6.99 per month, we now have a price and plan for every fan. While it’s still very early days, we’re pleased with the interest from both consumers and the advertising community and couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. As we learn from and improve the experience, we expect to launch in more countries over time.