Last week, Netflix rolled out a new plan for its service, Basic with Ads. As the name suggests, this new streaming range differs from the others in that it includes advertisements throughout the content, with the counterpart being cheaper than all other Netflix plans. But does paying a little less pay off in this case? Is the service worth it?
With this in mind, the tested Netflix’s Basic plan with ads, an experience with ups and downs. The subscription to the plan follows the pattern of any subscription to the service, which has just added another price range to the other three that already exist.
It is also possible to migrate your ad-free plan to this one, with the benefit of being R $ 7.00 less than the common, ad-free Basic plan. To test, we created an account on the new service plan to test the functionality and experience of watching Netflix with ads.
Basic impressions with ads
The first impression is familiar to anyone who has already subscribed or subscribed to the service. However, the difference appears as soon as you choose something to watch and open the player. Immediately, an ad appears in the vast majority of content, even if in a few moments the ad didn’t appear at the beginning.
The number and size of ads vary greatly. I even ran into none, one or two ads showing when I started running a piece of content. This type of advertising, before the start of a movie or series, is not inconvenient, especially for those used to ads on video platforms such as YouTube.
However, neither of the two ads offer the option to skip after a few seconds. During the announcement, the number of announcements that will be displayed at that moment is shown in the upper right corner of the screen and a countdown to the end of it.
On your computer, your ad stops when you switch between tabs in your browser, but continues when you open another window. When you exit content during an ad and return to the Netflix home page, another ad from the beginning is immediately displayed upon restart.
Therefore, it is not possible to watch the ad, exit the content and watch it again without the initial ad. But, as already mentioned, this initial announcement doesn’t hamper the experience at all, it just delays the start of the title show a bit.
However, there are also ads during Netflix catalog content, which interrupt the show at random moments – although, at least in the many ads we watch, this happens during cuts, not breaking scenes in half.
Unlike the initial ads, those that pause content while playing are pretty annoying, and some are too long, with up to four ads in a row for a total of 75 seconds (at least what we’ve seen).
Breaking up the content at random moments makes the streaming viewing experience less interesting and is, without a doubt, a big negative point of signing up for the plan with ads.
Often, productions such as “Dahmer: An American Cannibal”, one of the content chosen for the test, are suspended in moments of tension to show an advertisement, breaking a little the charm and tension of suspense or horror content, for example. .
On the other hand, the number of ads of 4 to 5 minutes per hour on average reported by Netflix, seems to have been respected and was never exceeded during our tests. At some times, ad minutes per hour were well below this average.
The moments when the rating was very low happened during the screening of new original films. While watching the films “Enola Holmes 2” and “Nothing New on the Front”, respectively lasting 2h10 and 2h28, no advertising interrupted the productions, being projected only at the beginning of the works.
We confirm this fact is not exclusive to movies, considering the 2019 Netflix original Christmas novel “Let It Snow” was interrupted by commercials. Therefore, both series and movies have breaks to show advertising pieces.
In addition to the pauses that interrupt content at unexpected moments, another minor annoyance was a factor that Netflix said to avoid: the repetition of certain ads. This was a point highlighted by the company in the presentation announcing the launch of the service, but the repetition of the same advertising pieces in consecutive content has happened a few times.
What makes the plan different from the others?
The Netflix platform with ads is exactly the same as the other plans. The Profiles are present, the display of the contents is the same and also the player in which we look at the contents remains the same.
But, besides the ads themselves, there is something very significant that is different between the plans: the availability of some content. Netflix had previously stated that not all of its catalog would be available on the advertising plan, due to “licensing restrictions”, a fact presented to users when subscribing to the plan.
Unavailable content appears marked with a red lock in the upper right corner, as you can see in some content in the screenshot below, such as the “Vikings” and “Suits” series and the “1917” movie:
When opening one of this content, the user is faced with a message explaining that that series or movie is not available for the Basic plan with ads, with Netflix suggesting a change of plan to watch the desired content, such as you can see below:
Is it worth subscribing to Netflix with ads?
With the similarities to the other plans and a few negative points, the question that remains is whether it’s really worth subscribing to Netflix with ads. The answer is far from a resounding yes or no.
The savings of BRL 7.00 per month that Basic plan subscribers can realize when migrating to Basic with Ads is BRL 84.00 per year, an amount that can be significant, depending on the subscriber’s purchasing power . Also, the ads don’t bother as much as you initially imagined.
Are there times when stopping productions should annoy users? Certainly. While watching the opening episode of “Dahmer: An American Cannibal”, which runs for 49 minutes, Netflix showed two ads at the beginning and there were two interruptions during the episode, one with four ads for a total of 75 seconds and another with two ads. it took 45 seconds.
Another point to consider is the limitation of some relevant content, which is available in the ad-free plans, but not in the one that includes the display of advertisements.
For those users who don’t mind a few absences considering Netflix’s voluminous catalog, and who would accept advertising in exchange for a few dollars less spent per month, I think this new plan is worth signing up for.
In addition, the casual user, who subscribes to Netflix only for marathon runners of some specific content, may find the Basic plan with ads a very valid option, reducing the cost with a very small loss, namely the display of ads.
But there are a considerable number of negative points that can lead many to choose to stay on the Basic plan. For those who subscribe to the Standard and Premium plans, both for the superior image quality and the number of simultaneous screens to share with other people in their home, Basic with ads is not worth it.
Added to this audience are those who are uncomfortable with ads, those who don’t want their content interrupted in between, and even those who don’t want their catalog to be limited by licensing restrictions.
Bottom line, if R $ 7.00 a month doesn’t make a lot of difference in your life, stay on Netflix ad-free. Now, for those with lower purchasing power or casual streaming users, Basic with Ads is a very viable option and sometimes goes unnoticed.
At the end of the day, ads are much less annoying than watching content on a TV channel, for example, where interruptions are more constant and often longer.
How did Netflix get here?
Adding ads to streams is an old discussion and is already present on some services in the United States.
In Brazil, Prime Video has pre-run announcements, but only internal, on other productions of the same stream. On the outside, this type of plan is already more common, with services like Hulu and Peacock offering cheaper options for those who accept the inclusion of advertising in content.
Netflix was rather reluctant to go so far as to launch this new plan. In January 2020, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the service would remain ad-free. But it didn’t last long, especially with the drop in the number of subscribers in early 2022.
“We believe that with our model we will get more revenue, higher profits and higher market capitalization because we don’t have exposure to something where we are strategically disadvantaged,” Hastings said at the time.
However, with the loss of over 200 million subscribers, Netflix backtracked and decided to implement the plan with ads. “It’s pretty clear it’s working for Hulu, Disney is doing it, HBO has. We have no doubt that it works, “Hastings said as early as 2022.
In June of this year, the company confirmed the creation of the ad-funded plan, and there was even speculation that a free plan could be launched, but that didn’t materialize. In October, Netflix announced the launch of the service for November 3, offering details on the new plan.
The Netflix post with advertising: we tested the service, is it worth it? first appeared on Digital Look.
Source: Olhar Digital
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
