Netflix Removes Advertising Basic Packages In UK And Canada

JAKARTA On Wednesday, January 24, executiveNetflix announced to investors that it would remove the Basic subscription package without ads for 11.99 US dollars (Rp188 thousand).

The first two countries to lose this package are Canada and the UK. With the loss of a $11.99 Basic package, users can only buy two more expensive packages or cheaper packages, but still have ads.

"We plan to stop basic packages in some of our advertising countries, starting from Canada and England in the 2nd Quarter and continuing from there," Netflix executive told shareholders, quoted by The Verge.

After the Basic package without ads is removed, users can only find Basic packages with advertisements for 6.99 dollars (Rp109 thousand). Meanwhile, the Standard Plan will be the cheapest adless service at a price of 15.49 US dollars (Rp243,000).

The most expensive package or Premium with a 4K resolution still has the same price, which is US$22.99 or around Rp361 thousand. With this price, it is likely that Basic users without ads will switch to Standard or Basic packages with advertisements.

Netflix intentionally removed the Basic without ad after its number of users increased in the fourth quarter of last year. Netflix users jumped by 70 percent and 40 percent of them used Basic packages with ads.

This video streaming company deliberately deleted their Basic subscriptions to scale up the advertising business and earn new revenue. They are also pursuing significant sources of profit for the medium and long term.

This is in line with their growing active users. Currently, monthly active users on Netflix have reached 23 million members, while the number of members has reached 247 million globally.