Netflix will be eliminating its basic service. Since July 2023, the basic subscription was no longer offered. At the time, it was $9.99 US. Then at the end of the year, they increased the price to $11.99 for those grandfathered in. Now, they’re eliminating that tier for people in the UK and Canada in Q2 2024 and select regions in the US.
The cheapest ad-free price will be $15.49 which is called the standard plan. The price with ads is $6.99.
I used to pay £6.99 per month and that includes us being able to use it at my home and at my partner’s house and on our houseboat, where it is often impossible to get a “terrestrial TV signal” so I used to think it was reasonable value.
I used to cancel my membership during the months we were unlikely to use it and reinstate it during the Winter months or when we were travelling by boat for a few months, when we are more likely to be watching TV in the evenings, but I heard they were stopping the option of using Netflix in more than one household for new memberships and only existing subscribers could keep that package at that price, so I left it running last year.
A bit of a waste of money, really because I don’t watch a lot of programmes on Netflix - and nowadays there’s so many free channels to choose from, which offer films and Box Sets of series to watch via wireless Internet signal on a Smart TV or on computer screen.
I notice they sneaked up the Netflix price of my package up to £7.99 last month - I don’t think I’ll keep it going all year again - I’ll probably cancel it next month, when the worst of the dark Winter months are behind us and if I ever want to subscribe again for a one- off series or film I want to watch, I’ll just take the cheapest basic package with ads for a month.
Cancelled my Netflix ages ago and I get getting emails from them to rejoin. I packed it in because the content was poor and very little on there worth watching. If they were to put up something worthwhile, I may reconsider going back for a month or two and then immediately cancel again. At the moment, it’s not worth it.
The streaming services are going the way of cable tv. Many people chose streaming so they didn’t have to put up with all the ads. Now, what’s the difference? Why pay extra to have what you already have: a 45 minute show and 15 minutes of advertising.
Maybe back to the old way of recording shows and skimming through the ads?
I don’t use Netflix anymore. I use Acorn, Knowledge Network (a local public broadcaster) and CBC.
