Netflix's ad tier will cost $6.99 USD and will launch in November.

[HomeBoi]

So people are okay with paying for Ads, weeeeel hell no. Fuck this and fuck those companies. 

[Qub3d]

17 hours ago, Holmes108 said:

I mean, they can raise prices for just about any reason, but I really don't see the connection between those 2.

 

I offer you a subscription to anything, for say $10... Later I offer a lower value one for half price ($5). Maybe ten years down the line the packages are $20 and $10 respectively... but I still don't see why one causes an increase in the other. 

 

I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but it's such a random assumption that I'd say it's just as likely the ad tier could supplement the higher tier packages, providing new and needed revenue and slow down price increases. There's nothing to base that on either though, so who knows.

It may be the average member here is too young to remember, but the original Netflix subscription cost (when streaming first became available) was 7 USD. So, in a way, this has already happened. (I know, inflation etc)

[Holmes108]

8 hours ago, dizmo said:

Probably because we don't have nearly as much content. 

This was an issue in the early days of Netflix in Canada. I don't find it to be the case anymore. Perhaps if you look at the total number of individual titles we have fewer, but I'm hard pressed to name something big that we can't find here in Canada, that can't be explained away due to licensing issues (ie the usual discrepancies between regions).

[Holmes108]

1 hour ago, Doobeedoo said:

I don't use Netflix but this is gouging to see how desperate people are. 

Offering a cheaper tier for people is gouging? That's a new one to me.

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

18 hours ago, yolosnail said:

Everybody is going on like the ads are the main issue.

 

It's not.

 

Basic is still limited to 720p (it was 480p so that's an 'upgrade')

This is a HUGE issue. Netflix stuff looks like crap on my TV because all the other streaming services give you 4k Dolby Vision etc. with their basic plan. Netflix paywalls it 

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

8 hours ago, dizmo said:

What quality level is the ad tier? I wouldn't mind if it's the mid tier quality. Actually I'd likely switch if that were the case. I could use the couple of minutes between episodes to grab a drink or stretch. I really hope they're not stupid enough to put the ads in the middle of movies. 4 or 5 ads...or a minute to a minute and a half seems more than fair.

 

Fun fact. You don't actually HAVE to watch the ad. Reply to emails or something. 

 

Probably because we don't have nearly as much content. 

It's 720p. RIP

[Doobeedoo]

21 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

Offering a cheaper tier for people is gouging? That's a new one to me.

In a way yes, literally trying to see to what low end people will bite. On paper is cheaper a bit, yet still bad and adds, quite a meme. And companies wonder why people pirate.

[Spotty]

I largely suspect Netflix sees the ad supported plan as just a way to get new people to sign up who might have not considered it previously, with the hope that a high enough portion of people who join the ad supported plan will eventually convert to a regular plan to access the full content Netflix has, higher resolution, more simultaneous streaming devices, or simply just to remove the ads. If they don't find the right balance though, such as if too much content is locked away, there are too many ads, or the video quality is garbage, they might end up driving those potential customers away. There's a lot of choice for streaming services these days.

[TetraSky]

9 hours ago, dizmo said:

Probably because we don't have nearly as much content. 

Canada still has enough content to be ranked #3 for Netflix content though
https://www.finder.com/ca/netflix-canada-vs-world-content

Spoiler

https://www.finder.com/ca/netflix-canada-vs-world-content

I don't think having 149 fewer pieces of content alone explains the lower price.

 

3 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Correction and update October 13th, 5:20 PM ET: Netflix’s ad tier will include an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour, not four to five ads per hour, as an earlier version of this story misstated.

TV shows are on average 22 to 24 minutes long, which leaves 6 to 8 minutes for ads to fill the entire 30 minutes slot. Which means you get about 12 to 16 minutes of ads per hour.
1/3 of that is good for this price when compared to paying $80 per month for TV services that you don't even watch 90% of the channels on and still get more ads.

I guess it remains to be seen how much content they cut out for the ads supporter tier.

[Spotty]

Just now, TetraSky said:

According to Techdaily, 4 days ago...
 

So we have 149 fewer content, with all except 1 being tv series... yeah, well worth the cheaper price. 

I'm surprised the number of titles on US and Canadian Netflix is so close, but I'm a bit sceptical of just counting the number of shows/movies to determine parity between different regions. Australian Netflix could have 5500 titles matching US and Canada but if 2000 of them are low budget Indian movies that most people aren't interested in watching then there's still going to be a big disparity in content quality between different regions and people are still going to feel like they're missing out on some of the shows and movies that they do want to watch that other Netflix regions may have access to.

I don't think there's a better way to quickly compare between them, but simply counting the number of titles doesn't tell the full story.

[ebprince the computer nerd]

6 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

So it's worst than @ebprince the computer nerd initially stated...

just updated the post, this is way worse than I thought this could be become. steer clear of netflix

[GhostRoadieBL]

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

Probably because we don't have nearly as much content.

also likely based on number of people who closed their accounts after the last price hike, there's a ton of collected data on what the average consumer would pay so it's possible we just don't have the same number of people accepting a price hike or feature change as other markets.

[dizmo]

10 hours ago, Spotty said:

4-5 ads per hour was a mistake by the linked article. It's actually 4-5 minutes of ads per hour, not 4-5 ads. They've since correct the article:

 

I can't imagine them putting a 10 minute ad block before a movie so I would say it's very likely going to be interrupting content to play shorter ad blocks. It wouldn't surprise me if shorter content like TV shows with 20-30min episodes still get an ad block in the middle of the show with 30-90 seconds worth of ads.

That's still far less than we were getting with cable IIRC. I wouldn't mind that. It's 4 or 5 minutes to go do something else while you wait for it to come on. Let's face it, no one needs to sit for hours in front of content without moving; nor should we be doing that to our bodies.

 

If I didn't have anything that needed to be done, I'd probably grab some weights and get some reps in or do some crunches.

 

We don't have to sit and watch the ads.

10 hours ago, HomeBoi said:

So people are okay with paying for Ads, weeeeel hell no. Fuck this and fuck those companies. 

I mean, you're not really paying for ads. The ads are lowering your monthly payment.

It's a fair trade, IMO. Content isn't free, we shouldn't have that thought process.

9 hours ago, Holmes108 said:

This was an issue in the early days of Netflix in Canada. I don't find it to be the case anymore. Perhaps if you look at the total number of individual titles we have fewer, but I'm hard pressed to name something big that we can't find here in Canada, that can't be explained away due to licensing issues (ie the usual discrepancies between regions).

I don't really use it a ton to be honest, but I remember there being a ton of titles that were missing when compared to the US library.

I'd try to compare now but...I haven't the time.

9 hours ago, CHICKSLAYA said:

It's 720p. RIP

Hahaha, oof.

7 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Canada still has enough content to be ranked #3 for Netflix content though
https://www.finder.com/ca/netflix-canada-vs-world-content

  Reveal hidden contents

https://www.finder.com/ca/netflix-canada-vs-world-content

I don't think having 149 fewer pieces of content alone explains the lower price.

 

TV shows are on average 22 to 24 minutes long, which leaves 6 to 8 minutes for ads to fill the entire 30 minutes slot. Which means you get about 12 to 16 minutes of ads per hour.
1/3 of that is good for this price when compared to paying $80 per month for TV services that you don't even watch 90% of the channels on and still get more ads.

I guess it remains to be seen how much content they cut out for the ads supporter tier.

I mean...having more content doesn't mean it's quality content. IIRC a lot of it is Canadian content, which is....to put it nicely, lacking.

20 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

also likely based on number of people who closed their accounts after the last price hike, there's a ton of collected data on what the average consumer would pay so it's possible we just don't have the same number of people accepting a price hike or feature change as other markets.

Hmmm I never thought of that. Interesting.

[Internet_Goblin]

4-5 minutes per hour is still a far cry from the 25+ minutes an hour I'd get from watching broadcast. I remember when Hulu first launched they had a free tier with a bunch of ads and I was perfectly content watching it because it was revolutionary vs watching 120p anime episodes in 30 parts on YouTube at the library. Although sometimes you lucked out and got 360p in 3 videos.

 

Now obviously this could create a slippery slope of ever increasing ad space until we're back at broadcast numbers, but we will have to wait and see how this develops. Given the absolutely massive struggle bus many of us are riding, having a slightly lowered tier with a few ads (especially if they play right at the beginning or end of a show/movie to lower viewing disruption) could be a nice time for a bathroom break or snack refill time, but I'm certain people far smarter than myself at Netflix will be watching plenty of data points regarding this program over the coming months.

 

 

[starsmine]

With cable being 15-25 min of ads an hour, and paid hulu ad supported is 10-15min ads per hour (1/3 less adds woooo who even notices that)
4-5 min of ads per hour seems fine?

 

Rather just split it between free with ads and pay no ads. The middle ground of pay for ads just always sketches me out, but this really is the lesser of evils.

[TOMPPIX]

[thrasher_565]

people pay $150+ for cable and see like 20+ mintes of ads per hour... i even seen the same zit commercial 9 times in the one movie i watched...

[maartendc]

Too expensive to be watching ads. This will not go well for them.

 

Also, why is France a whole euro more expensive than Germany?' That doesnt make any sense.