The big streaming platforms are shedding their skin, and they are doing it essentially in two ways.
First of all, with one crackdown on account sharing. Netflix started last March, and soon it will be the turn of Disney+, which will begin the experiment from Canada on November 1st.
We are also in a season of remodulation of offers (and, let’s say it openly, of price increases). And tech giants such as Meta are also looking at the moves of streaming platforms, which is thinking of making Facebook and Instagram pay for those who don’t want advertisements. TikTok is even further ahead, because it has already started a testing phase in this sense.
Meanwhile, in our country, Netflix has eliminated the basic plan without advertising for new subscribers. Let’s find out what happened and how the offering of the California-based platform is structured today.
Netflix removes the basic plan in Italy
Netflix’s basic plan is gone. In Italy it can no longer be subscribed toas can be seen from the page that illustrates all the current possible subscription formulas.
Plan however, it can be kept unchanged by whoever owns ituntil cancellation or transfer to another plan. But new subscribers will only be able to choose between the Standard plan with advertising or two other plans, Standard and Premium.
The basic plan
Netflix’s basic plan it had a monthly cost of 7.99 euros and allowed not only to watch content in HD without advertising (on only one screen at a time), but also to download films and TV seriesto be able to use it at any time.
Anyone who abandons the basic plan now will have to choose between more expensive plans if they resubscribe to Netflix, or settle for a plan with advertising and without the possibility of downloading.
Canada was once again the pilot country: there already in June Netflix had eliminated its basic plan without advertising.
The survey by Altroconsumo and Euroconsumers on the basic plan
The elimination of Netflix’s basic plan in Italy had been in the air for some time.
It must also be said that the floor was “obscured” by the platform. She did not appear immediately on the screen with the various offers that could be subscribed to, but it was necessary to click on “See all plans”.
This lack of transparency pushed Altroconsumo and Euroconsumers to send a report to the Competition and Market Guarantor Authority (AGCM). In the note from the two associations we read, among other things, that “scrolling down the subscription page and clicking on a small gray button with the wording ‘See all plans’ opens another screen showing a another tariff plan: the Basic which does not include advertising and which costs 7.99 euros per month (i.e. 5 euros less than the Standard package).
Furthermore, the use of the plural (‘plans’) would suggest the presence of numerous further subscription plans which would not be shown immediately exclusively for graphical reasons (e.g. to avoid making the page excessively confusing) and, instead, by clicking on the button , the consumer is faced with a screen showing a single more subscription plan than at the beginning.
This omission of information is likely to push consumers, who are interested in a subscription without advertising content, to sign up for a more expensive offer than the one they would access if they were provided with all the relevant information.”
Current plans
In short: Netflix’s basic plan, now eliminated in Italy, was already somehow made very little visible by the company, because it was deemed… too convenient for consumers.
At present there are three plans that can be subscribed to. The basic plan with advertising costs 5.49 euros per month, does not allow the download of content and the user who activates it must accept complete data profiling. Furthermore, all the platform’s titles are available in Full HD for 2 devices at a time “except for a few films and TV series.”
You then move on to the Standard plan at a cost of 12.99 euros per month. The plan allows viewing from 2 devices at a time in Full HD, but this time without advertising and with the possibility of downloading content.
Finally, there is the Premium plan, at 17.99 euros per month. Here the quality is Ultra HD and there are 6 devices that can be used simultaneously.