Netflix will no longer offer its standard plan, the cheapest one without ads, in the US and UK. The goal of the streaming giant is to push consumers to subscriptions with advertising, which offer a diversified income to the company. And in Italy?
Netflix: bye bye piano standard
As Variety reports, the Standard plan is no longer available “to new or re-subscribing subscribers.” According to Netflix, existing Basic members can “stay on this plan until they change it or renew their payment.”
This is the same controversial maneuver already adopted in Canada in late June, designed to encourage users to subscribe to the Standard plan with ads (ad-supported). In May, Netflix said it had caught up 5 million subscribers for its ad-supported planswith 25% of new subscribers choosing the package in question.
In Italy, where the Standard plan is still available, this is sold at the price of €12.99 per month. The Standard plan with advertising, on the other hand, costs €5.49 per month. It cannot be ruled out that in the near future Netflix will decide to make the changes in Europe as well, eliminating the Standard Plan from its offer.