LOS GATOS, Calif.—Netflix went live with its ad-supported tier on November 3 at 9 a.m. PT, offering subscribers a lower cost $6.99 tier that will include four to five minutes of ads per hour.
The lower costs for the "Basic with Ads" tier come with some trade-offs beyond having to watch ads. The offering will offer only 720p streaming video-–the same as Netflix’s $9.99 ad free basic tier-–and unlike the basic tier, users will not be able to download content for offline viewing.
Netflix’s $15.49 standard package offers 1080p video while its premium $19.99 tier offers 4K, HDR video for content that is available in that format.
Some questions have also been raised about the available content. Netflix needs to get rights to run ads next to some of its content and the Wall Street Journal reported on November 2 shortly before the launch that Netflix still hadn’t hammered out deals with such major studios as Disney, NBCU and Sony.
The launch comes at a time when streamers have been raised prices and are launching more ad-supported tiers to attract cost conscious consumers. Netflix moved up the launch of its ad-supported tier so it would be available before Disney launches its ad-supported service in December.
