A CHEAP new Netflix plan could cost as little as £5.49 a month.
Netflix has teased a subscription supported by advertising – and insiders have told The Sun that your bills could be halved.
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Streaming chief Reed Hastings revealed that he was open to a cheaper Netflix subscription earlier this week.
It came after Netflix admitted it had lost subscribers for the first time in over a decade.
The “Standard” Netflix plan currently costs £10.99 a month in the UK and $15.49 in the US.
But industry insiders speaking to The Sun say they predict a cheaper plan could cost 50% less.
“Undoubtedly it has to be low enough to attract users to sign up and keep them engaged,” said Paolo Pescatore, an expert media analyst at PP Foresight.
“Therefore, somewhere between 25% to 50% less than what they’re paying today.
Paolo told The Sun: “It remains to be seen whether it will be rolled across all current tiers, or this becomes the basic cheapest tier as a means to get folks signed up.
“Then if they want a premium experience, they can pay more for that.”
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The price is right
We also spoke to industry analyst titan Michael Pachter, who agreed that a halved fee was on the cards.
“Most services that offer ad support charge half, so $7.99 is likely,” said Pachter, of Wedbush Securities, speaking to The Sun.
“But Netflix may advertise a tad less and charge a tad more.
“So I would guess between $7.99 to $9.99.”
He added: “With four 2minute ad breaks – one pre-roll, and three more at the 12, 24, 36 minute marks.”
Ad-solutely golden
A third insider – Tammy Parker of GlobalData – thought Netflix could drop to around $10 a month in the US, courtesy of a $5 discount.
“HBO Max offers a $5 monthly discount for its ad-supported version,” Tammy told The Sun.
“So I would imagine that Netflix would follow suit with that type of discount if it goes forward with an advertising-supported tier.”
But the tech analyst added that Netflix might try to make its ads “less intrusive than they are on other services”.
Netflix doesn’t currently show ads before, during or after TV shows or movies.
But the price has steadily climbed over the years, with the top plan now costing £15.99 / $19.99.
Speaking to investors this week, Netflix admitted the it had lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years.
It revealed how 200,000 subscribers had ditched the app – and that a further 2million watchers could disappear by July.
Speaking to investors, Netflix boss Reed Hastings admitted that a cheaper, ad-supported plan was on the table.
He told investors that they would work it out “over the next year or two”.
And said the new plan would be great for viewers who “would like to have a lower price and are advertising tolerant”.
Netflix also believes that as many as 100million homes are now sharing subscriptions.
That’s a huge chunk of its 222million subscriber total.
Netflix is now plotting a crackdown on users sharing their logins.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
