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Netflix has begun discontinuing their cheapest regular subscription in several countries. These are countries where the streaming service introduced an even cheaper subscription with advertising some time back. So users now have a choice between paying more or watching ads.

In the news: What had been announced for some time through various sources is now beginning to be effectively implemented. On social media, several users reveal that they received a notification on Netflix in late April that the Basic subscription is ending.

  • The notification would have been sent to users from Canada and the United Kingdom, among others. These are countries where the even cheaper Standard with Ads subscription is available. Users who do nothing will be automatically switched to that subscription with ads on June 1. On June 4, the cheapest ad-free subscription will then disappear for good.

Criticism

Netflix's decision has drawn a lot of criticism. Indeed, if users do not like advertising on the streaming service, the elimination of the Basic subscription amounts to a substantial price increase. Many are therefore threatening to discontinue their subscription to Netflix altogether. It remains to be seen whether that will actually happen en masse. Even when Netflix decided to crack down on password sharing, many people threatened to cancel their subscriptions. In practice, however, the opposite happened.

Belgium? Since Netflix regularly uses Canada as a preliminary on other countries, there is a chance that the streaming service plans to do away with the Basic option altogether in the future. However, that will only happen once "Standard with Ads" is rolled out in all countries where Netflix is available. Since the latter is not yet the case in Belgium, the cheapest Standard subscription will remain for now.

© The Content Exchange, source News