Netflix’s Ad-Supported Subscription Plan Expected to Launch Nov. 1

Netflix has apparently decided to speed up the launch of its ad-supported streaming tier in an attempt to beat Disney+ to market.

When plans for an ad-supported tier were first revealed back in April, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said, “we’re trying to figure [it] out over the next year or two.” Now it seems that timeframe has been shortened to just six months, as Variety reports(Opens in a new window) Netflix is planning a Nov. 1 launch.

The decline in subscribers doesn’t seem to be the main driver for rushing out an ad-supported streaming tier. The Disney+ tier with advertising (called Disney+ Basic) is set to launch on Dec. 8, and Netflix is apparently very keen to beat it to market according to industry sources. When Variety asked Netflix about this, a spokesperson said, “We are still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower-priced, ad-supported tier and no decisions have been made.”

If it turns out to be true, the launch is expected to happen simultaneously across the US, Canada, the UK, France, and Germany first. Much will depend on if Netflix can line-up enough ads to support the launch through its advertising partner Microsoft.

We currently don’t know how much Netflix intends to charge consumers for this new tier, with the best guess putting the cost at somewhere between $7 and $9 per month. For reference, Disney+ Basic is expected to cost $7.99 per month(Opens in a new window). We also need to keep in mind that this new subscription tier may not include all content.

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