Netflix kills its cheapest ad-free plan in the U.S. and U.K.

Following a similar move in Canada last month, streaming giant Netflix is now killing its ‘’basic’’ subscription tier in the United States and United Kingdom.

The latest change won’t affect existing users in the US and UK immediately, but once they change their plans or cancel their subscription, Netflix’s ad-free basic tier will not be an option anymore.

Instead, they will now have three options to choose from; the ‘Standard with ads’ plan for $6.99/£4.99 per month, the ‘Standard’ plan for $15.49/ £10.99 per month, and the ‘Premium’ plan for $19.99/ £15.99 per month.

The company first launched its ad-supported tier under the name ‘’Basic with Ads’’ in November last year. While it was reportedly Netflix’s least popular plan in its first month of launch, the company announced this May that it approached 5 million monthly active users. Following the launch of the plan, which Netflix teamed up with Microsoft for, the company said that it was expecting it to lure 40 million users by the third quarter of 2023, and account for at least 10% of its revenue eventually. 

Industry executives recently revealed that the ad-supported tier, which is now the cheapest option among all Netflix plans available, has nearly 1.5 million subscribers in the U.S. alone, as reported by The Information.

New prices provide great value to consumers, Netflix said

While reporting its financial results for the second quarter of the year on Wednesday, the company said: “In Q1, we lowered prices in a number of less penetrated markets, and in Q2, we phased out our Basic ads-free plan for new and rejoining members in Canada (existing members on the Basic ads-free plan are unaffected). We’re now doing the same in the US and the UK. We believe our entry prices in these countries – $6.99 in the US, £4.99 in the UK and $5.99 in Canada – provide great value to consumers given the breadth and quality of our catalog.”

In Q2 2023, Netflix revenue grew by 2.7% Y/Y to $8.2 billion, and the total number of its subscribers increased by 8% Y/Y to 238.39 million.

Also Read: Netflix Revenue and Usage Statistics

The news comes nearly two months after Netflix expanded its crackdown on password-sharing to the U.S. and over 100 markets, which seems to have worked given that the company managed to add nearly 6 million subscribers in the last quarter.