Netflix launches ‘Basic with Adverts’ tier – but you will still have to pay

Netflix has announced its new ad-supported tier, which will be coming next month.

The tier, “Basic with Adverts”, will cost £4.99 a month in the UK and will launch on 3 November.

Users will be able to watch content on TV and mobile devices, but the video quality will be limited to 720p/HD for both the Basic with Adverts and Basic plans, and there will be four to five minutes of adverts per hour.

At launch, adverts will be 15 or 30 seconds in length which will play before and during series and films. The ads will be targetted based on country and genre, with advertisers limiting what content the ads appear next to in case it is “inconsistent with their brand.”

Netflix says it will not take political ads, guns, explosives, weapons, smoking, or anything that “feels like a get-rich-quick scheme”.

Date of birth and gender, among other data, will be collected at sign-up. Demographic targetting will not be available at launch, but will come over time.

There are travel, retail, and luxury brands in its advertisers, among others, and Netflix says it has sold out its availability before launch. Netflix will only target ads based on country and genre for the moment.

Certain films and TV series will not be available, due to licensing restrictions, and there will be no ability to stream from multiple devices, or download titles. This is due to “technical complexities” of showing ads on offline shows.

Netflix says it is “working on” the issues with licensing restrictions, but it is unclear exactly what the process will be. The percentage of content missing in the tier is different from country to country, but “five to 10 per cent” might be missing.

Netflix did not provide further information when asked byThe Independent before time of publication.

The tier is also available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the US.

Netflix’s ad-supported tier comes as subscribers and revenue falls. The streaming giant lost 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of the year, due to competition and rising inflation.

Netflix is also introducing restrictions on password sharing - charging people extra if they use their account in more than one place.