Netflix is making some big changes again to its streaming tiers, announcing in its Q4 shareholder letter on Tuesday that its Basic plan is disappearing forever.
Back in June, Netflix removed the option for new and returning subscribers to choose its Basic plan in Canada, that cost $9.99/month at the time. Now? This Basic plan for existing users will be removed entirely. That means they’ll have to pick from a Standard with Ads plan at $5.99 CAD or jump up to the Standard plan at $16.49 CAD per month. That’s a $6.49/month increase for a customer that was on the $9.99 Basic plan.
This removal of the Basic Plan will start first in Canada and the UK in Q2. You can’t say now that Canada never gets new things first, right?
“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,” explained Netflix.
“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,” said Netflix.
Here is current Netflix pricing in Canada right now:
Again, existing Basic users in Canada will see a 65% price hike if they opt for the Standard plan, or head down to Standard with ads for $5.99/month.
Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers in Q4 and now has 247 million subscribers worldwide.
Are you on the Netflix Basic plan still? What will you do when the time comes to switch plans?
