Netflix kills Basic plan, making its cheapest ad-free tier $15.49

If you already have the $9.99 Basic plan, you can keep it.

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[the_frakker]

No, you paid for all YOU can eat... not what you and several other people can eat.

No. I paid for 4 simultaneous streams. There was never a stipulation about where I use those streams.

 

[faustshausuk]

No. I paid for 4 simultaneous streams. There was never a stipulation about where I use those streams.

Using the Wayback Machine, I found the oldest version of their current terms of use URL I could - it's dated 1 December 2018, long before this crackdown.

Section 4.2 (emphasis mine):

• 4.2. The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access the Netflix service and view Netflix content through the service. Except for the foregoing, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.

I assume this language has remained in some form or other throughout the various revisions they've made since, and may even pre-date this - I am too lazy to look up previous URLs for this page.

I don't like this rule, but they spell it out quite clearly.

 

[timber]

It's funny, all these services keep raising prices while making the user experience worse. I don't have the time or energy to track down what show has moved to what service or if it was canceled and removed completely. There's so much garbage content to sort through the few times i do pick up the remote I often give up out of frustration. A subscription plan with commercials isn't even an option for me personally, it's either the higher plan or no subscription at all, currently it's no subscription.

When you stop having all of them (because you shared or they were cheaper) you stop discovering their new shows, particularly those mid tier shows that nobody is going to subscribe for and they become transparent.
And it becomes even easier not to have a given service.
Sucession or GoT type show will always bring people but those don't come along every day.

 

[Chmilz]

Apparently Netflix has not shed enough subscribers.

Same with Reddit.

Despite the perceived public resentment, internet companies want to lose unprofitable customers. Delivering the service isn't free, and while losing users looks bad on the surface, the profitability goes way up if they generated little or no revenue while costing the business money to deliver service.

Until paying customers bounce, nothing changes.

 

[Matthew J.]

Long-time subscriber, but I've been trying an experiment since about January: to see if I could live without watching Netflix. So far, I've noticed very little to no meaningful change in my life or how I spend my leisure time.

Netflix was a pioneer, and I'll always be thankful to them for that. But they've been acting as if they're indispensable for the past couple of years now--and that is no longer true. If I want cable, I still have the option of paying "because we can" money to my local provider. I don't.

If they ever release another season of Ragnarok, I might sign up for a month to binge-watch it. Or maybe I'll just take my laptop to my parents' house, download the season, and then watch it at home. I currently pay for my parents' subscription, and honestly--I'd probably cancel it, except for the fact that it would take way too long to help them find all the back-catalog stuff they currently use it for elsewhere.

 

[s73v3r]

I still prefer the Pirate Bay plan

So you don't believe that anyone involved with the creation of things you like should be paid for it. Why should you be paid for the work you do?

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

So you don't believe that anyone involved with the creation of things you like should be paid for it. Why should you be paid for the work you do?

Given the facts revealed by the writer's strike, even the people who create the things we like aren't getting paid. Why are you willing to defend the studio fat cats who use accounting that would have any other person arrested for tax fraud? Why are you going to bat for a system that perpetuates the "starving artist" trope?

People are willing to pay for media, but when the powers that be make it more inconvenient to pay for it than to pirate it, people are going to pirate it. Valve and GOG figured this shit out nearly two decades ago, and the rise of Netflix was directly responsible for a decline in piracy. Hell, Crunchyroll started life as a pirate site, then made the switch to legitimate licensing once the studios realized that people were willing to pay for anime, just not $50 per DVD.

 

[Joshmx]

Using the Wayback Machine, I found the oldest version of their current terms of use URL I could - it's dated 1 December 2018, long before this crackdown.

Section 4.2 (emphasis mine):


I assume this language has remained in some form or other throughout the various revisions they've made since, and may even pre-date this - I am too lazy to look up previous URLs for this page.

I don't like this rule, but they spell it out quite clearly.

I couldn’t find the screenshot, but I screenshotted the FAQ after they started murmuring about charging for extra houses. Before any of it happened. There was nothing about not being able to share it. It was very clear that you were buying 4 screens. No other stipulations. You can’t say one thing then just say something else buried in a tos and have that be your out. A tos is not an end all magic legal document that covers everything under the sun.

For example: here are my terms of interaction: by replying, upvoting or downvoting this comment, the person completing the action or actions, hereafter “you,” shall pay me 5 US dollars for every action you completed. You shall pay in full within 24 hours of each action. It is the sole responsibility of you to make the payment on time by whatever means. Failure to do so shall result in you being required to pay double the cumulative amount, every 24 hours, until the full payment is made. You also revoke any rights you have at all. If any rights can’t be legally revoked, you still revoke the rights that can be legally revoked. All of them.


I think that is pretty clear. Let me know what you think. Don’t worry, love is sharing your perspective with the world.

 

[TheDriver78]

The longer this nickel-and-diming + enshittification goes on, the better piracy looks

 

[the_frakker]

Using the Wayback Machine, I found the oldest version of their current terms of use URL I could - it's dated 1 December 2018, long before this crackdown.

Section 4.2 (emphasis mine):


I assume this language has remained in some form or other throughout the various revisions they've made since, and may even pre-date this - I am too lazy to look up previous URLs for this page.

I don't like this rule, but they spell it out quite clearly.

I was never exposed to that language. It was not in the promotions that made me upgrade to the Family plan - 4 simultaneous streams.

You are dedicating way too much time researching this complaint to justify Netflix’s bullshit approach to solve this “problem.” Not sure why you’re being such an apologist to prove me “wrong.” No matter what you come up with, I’m not going to agree with it. This was the wrong move.

IMO, I paid for a Family plan. They can limit me to 4 streams. That did what they needed to do.

 

[SixDegrees]

The longer this nickel-and-diming + enshittification goes on, the better piracy looks

Or, you could just do without and not steal.

 

[faustshausuk]

I was never exposed to that language. It was not in the promotions that made me upgrade to the Family plan - 4 simultaneous streams.

You are dedicating way too much time researching this complaint to justify Netflix’s bullshit approach to solve this “problem.” Not sure why you’re being such an apologist to prove me “wrong.” No matter what you come up with, I’m not going to agree with it. This was the wrong move.

IMO, I paid for a Family plan. They can limit me to 4 streams. That did what they needed to do.

I don't disagree with you at all - their promotional language is intentionally coy about how you can use those four streams, and the idea of limiting family accounts to a single geographical location is asinine at best as it ignores a whole range of family situations (kids at college, elderly parents, and so on). Combined with their rapidly dwindling content quality, it was enough for me to cancel my $20/month membership. I had been a member since 2007.

We can argue about these things all day long. The only signal they give a shit about is subscriber counts, and unfortunately for us, those trends are not in our favour.

 

[s73v3r]

Given the facts revealed by the writer's strike, even the people who create the things we like aren't getting paid.

They're getting paid. Not nearly what they deserve, but they're getting paid. Piracy means they're not.

Why are you willing to defend the studio fat cats

I'm not, full fucking stop.

 

[s73v3r]

The longer this nickel-and-diming + enshittification goes on, the better piracy looks

Again, why do you think that other people don't deserve to be paid for their work? Should you be paid for yours?

 

[nerdrage]

Same with Reddit.

Despite the perceived public resentment, internet companies want to lose unprofitable customers. Delivering the service isn't free, and while losing users looks bad on the surface, the profitability goes way up if they generated little or no revenue while costing the business money to deliver service.

Until paying customers bounce, nothing changes.

The funny thing is, ARPU is down for Netflix in every region of the world, so they ARE losing their most profitable customers.

Click on the press release link, it breaks down the numbers: https://seekingalpha.com/news/39888...-3_29-beats-0_44-revenue-of-8_19b-misses-100m

 

[DarKnyht]

I foresee that ultimately it will shake out to Disney+ (encompassing Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+), Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. They all have the money to hold out and reasons to do so. Paramount+, Peacock and whatever Warner is calling their service now will ultimately die out as they cannot produce enough content to maintain subscribers, and honestly can make more money licensing out to the others or FAST services with ads

I also expect the FAST services like Tubi (FOX), PlutoTV (Paramount), FreeVee (Amazon), Xumo (NBC Comcast) and Plex like them to eventually take over a larger segment of the market. I would suspect that with Peacock ending it's free ad supported tier that you will start seeing exclusive series popping up on Comcast's Xumo service sooner than later.

Ultimately, the issue is the Oligopolies that make up the industry (and just about every other one out there). But until congress decides the remember they work for the public and not industries, this is the mess we are doomed to here in the states.

 

[thrillgore]

Quite a few decent animated comedies: Disenchantment, Love Death & Robots (not comedy I guess), Agent Elvis, Chicago Party Aunt... Tastes may vary, I suppose.

Nimona looks good and I loved the comic. But $16 for one movie is too much. I have other ways of accessing it and Netflix has priced itself out of competing with it.

 

[heartburnkid]

Again, why do you think that other people don't deserve to be paid for their work? Should you be paid for yours?

Dunno if you noticed the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and all, but one of the big issues going on now is that the people who do that work aren't being paid for it. Netflix and the other streamers are just kinda keeping all that money.

 

[Kanten]

Surely the key issue with subscriber loss is the price and ads, not the absolute pitiful leadership of its NA-produced content (international productions meanwhile have been killing it).

A blind idiot could recognize that Resident Evil was a terrible concept.

 

[FutureFrisbee]

As more and more streaming services change their lowest tier plan to ad-supported, I unsubscribe. For now at least, Netflix has me grandfathered in, That will change someday, and the day it does, I'll unsubscribe. I'm simply not going to pay $300+ for all these streaming services for which I only watch 1 or 2 nights a week.

 

[s73v3r]

Dunno if you noticed the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and all, but one of the big issues going on now is that the people who do that work aren't being paid for it. Netflix and the other streamers are just kinda keeping all that money.

No. The strikes are because they're not being paid enough, among many other working condition issues. They are obviously receiving money for their work, just at crappy rates.

That doesn't change the point; when you pirate something, you're saying that those involved don't deserve to be paid for their work. So if you feel others don't deserve that, why do you?

 

[ackmondual]

Sounds like you approve of consumer-unfriendly practices.

If they are counting on people not paying attention to their autopaid charges, then this move makes sense. Last time they raised prices, they lost a significant number of subscribers. There are a lot of options now in the streaming space.

But those will get price hikes in due time. Does that mean those in exodus will come back to NF?

I kinda doubt that there's enough people with this inclination to make a huge difference to their bottom line, but they're really tip toeing around the line where the mild inconvenience of piracy is a better option than their offerings.

Piracy isn't that difficult, but I wouldn't underestimate how much convenience factors in. I'd reckon $15.50 a month is affordable enough without jumping through those hoops. Also, some folks are technically illiterate enough that I can't really see them setting up a VPN (much less pay for it)

 

[ackmondual]

Ya know what, a long as they offer a monthly rate, I won't pirate their stuff. I can throw them $15.50 per year, I'll just wait till they pile up a month's worth of stuff and give them a month in my churn rotation.

Now if they ever get cute about that and demand a years' subscription to watch anything, they deserve to get pirated up the wazoo.

It's ironic Hulu axed their annual plan for ad-free. That's one of the I would've considered annual. That lead me to explore other streaming services

That's a likely state of affairs in the next decade. After looking at all the people who rotate subscriptions, they'll stop honoring monthly subs and force people onto quarterlies at rates maybe $2 less than the cost of 3 individual months in the previous plan. Then they'll wait a couple years to make it semi-annual. Then eventually, probably after some more consolidation, it'll be annual contracts, take it or leave it.

Well, in that case, I'll likely find other recreation! I thought I'd miss cable TV, but cut the cord there and never looked back! I can do the same with streaming.

 

[Goucham]

But can I actually view at 1080p or higher on desktop? I HATE how difficult it is to find an answer to this question on most streaming services. I actually paid for 4k netflix until I soon realized it wasn't supported on my PC. Borderline scam.

Yes, you can. They have a FAQ about it. They are one of the few streaming companies that don't dance around the 4k-on-PC question.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444

 

[poochyena]

Yes, you can. They have a FAQ about it. They are one of the few streaming companies that don't dance around the 4k-on-PC question.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444

I still had to click through 3 links to find my PC is compatible as of only 8 months ago since I had a 980 before I upgraded recently. Having to click through multiple links and look at specific model numbers of each PC component still isn't very consumer friendly. They should have an automatic check

 

[graylshaped]

Same with Reddit.

Despite the perceived public resentment, internet companies want to lose unprofitable customers. Delivering the service isn't free, and while losing users looks bad on the surface, the profitability goes way up if they generated little or no revenue while costing the business money to deliver service.

Until paying customers bounce, nothing changes.

Raising prices is a good way to shed paying customers, also, along with discouraging new sign-ups. I was ready to give it a whack to catch up on shows, but then this little turd dropped into the punch bowl. Netflix was founded because a guy was grumpy with silly rewind and late charges from Blockbuster. They may want to look in a mirror.

 

[Chmilz]

Raising prices is a good way to shed paying customers, also, along with discouraging new sign-ups. I was ready to give it a whack to catch up on shows, but then this little turd dropped into the punch bowl. Netflix was founded because a guy was grumpy with silly rewind and late charges from Blockbuster. They may want to look in a mirror.

They gained nearly 6m customers over the last quarter, so whatever decisions they are making, they appear to be making using solid data. My personal negative sentiment aside, they appear to know what they're doing to grow the platform.

 

[Amara97]

Wonder if my ad-blocker can block Netflix ads.

Yes, many ad blockers can block Netflix ads. You can go to the Chrome web store to find a lot of extensions to do so. You can also try some third-party downloaders to get ad-free Netflix videos, like Tunelf.