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Netflix announced Thursday that it is eliminating the Basic plan for American and French subscribers.
This measure will force customers with the Basic package to modify their subscription to continue watching content on the streaming platform.
“The Basic plan has been discontinued,” Netflix’s Help Center pages for U.S. and French plans and pricing said Thursday morning. “You can switch plans at any time.”
This measure will force customers with the Basic package to modify their subscription to continue watching content on the streaming platform. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Netflix charged $11.99 per month in the US for the Basic plan and did not run ads.
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The removal of the Basic plan in the US and France, announced during Netflix’s second-quarter results, follows the loss of access to the plan for all UK and Canadian audiences earlier this year.
Before that, Netflix had made this plan unavailable to new UK and Canadian subscribers, as well as to returning subscribers. Later, Netflix made this service unavailable to new US subscribers, as well as to returning subscribers. This happened last summer.
The Netflix logo appears on a smartphone screen. (Photo illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
During this tier removal period, only those who already had the Basic plan could keep it.
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Netflix said Thursday that the discontinuation of its Basic plan in the U.K. and Canada helped boost subscriber growth for its ad-supported offering. A crackdown on password sharing also helped.
| Teleprinter | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 633.34 | -9.70 | -1.51% |
“The attractiveness of the ad-supported plan ($6.99 per month in the U.S., with two streams, HD and downloads) – coupled with the phasing out of our Basic plan in the U.K. and Canada, which we will now launch in the U.S. and France – grew our advertising member base by 34% sequentially in the second quarter,” the company said.
In addition to the “Standard with Ads” plan, Netflix offers two plans – “Standard” at $15.99 per month and “Premium” at $22.99 per month – that do not include advertising.
Netflix charged $11.99 per month in the US for the Basic plan and did not run ads. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The company said it had more than 277 million subscribers in the second quarter, with the U.S. and Canada accounting for more than 84 million.
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Netflix expects full-year revenue growth of 14% to 15%. Its full-year operating margin, meanwhile, is expected to be 26%. Both figures represent slight increases from previous forecasts.
“Our goal is to increase our operating margin each year, although the rate of expansion will vary from year to year,” the company said.
