The streaming world is constantly changing, not least because you now face a number of issues. In an increasingly competitive market, many providers still have massive spending on their content, offset by stagnant or only very slowly growing subscription numbers. To counter this, a wide variety of measures are used, some of which are highly controversial, such as removing exclusive content to save royalties, as Disney+ did recently and Paramount+ will soon do.
But adjustments are also made to the subscriptions themselves, especially with the streaming top dog Netflix. However, this doesn’t just mean occasional price increases, the basic subscription system itself is always being tweaked to generate new users, make more profit from the existing ones or, ideally, achieve both.
For example, since last year there has not only been a cheap Netflix subscription with advertising, but more and more action is now being taken against the widespread sharing of accounts with other households. But the sweeping Netflix changes don’t seem to stop there any time soon: As a new development in Canada suggests, the popular Netflix basic subscription could soon be a thing of the past!
No more basic subscription in Canada…
If you take out a Netflix subscription, you currently (still) have the choice of the following four different models with different functions and at correspondingly different prices:
- Standard subscription with advertising: Full HD, streamable on two devices simultaneously (4.99 per month)
- Basic subscription: HD, content streamable and downloadable on one device (7.99 euros per month)
- Standard subscription: Full HD, content can be streamed and downloaded on two devices at the same time, an additional member from another household possible (12.99 euros per month)
- Premium subscription: UHD, content can be streamed and downloaded on four devices simultaneously, two additional members from different households possible (17.99 euros per month)
These models exist in most of Netflix’s many countries (albeit with different prices). However, a prominent exception here is now Canada, where one of the websites and, according to several angry Twitter responses, more or less quietly and secretly removed said basic subscription option. And it is very likely that something similar will soon bloom in Germany…
… and soon no longer in Germany?
It’s not uncommon for Netflix to test new features or changes in a few homes in a limited area before rolling out widely or eventually removing them. The change in Canada is now more than just a test, as this fundamental change impacts all relevant subscribers across the country. But not only does this particular measure suggest that Netflix could soon expand this to other countries such as Germany, a hidden renaming also strongly suggests this.
Until recently, the “standard subscription with advertising” was still referred to as “basic subscription with advertising”. The fact that the name has now been updated to the next higher subscription model (exactly as it was in Canada before the base model was discontinued), suggests that the base model will soon be completely eliminated in this country as well. In addition, the basic model is already hidden when you take out a Netflix subscription and you have to click the ‘Show all subscriptions’ button to get there at all:
An official confirmation for the local abolition is still awaited, so it remains to be seen whether this will actually happen, but given these indications it would not be surprising anymore. The many users of the basic model could soon be faced with the choice of switching to the next more expensive standard model in order to use Netflix almost as before (which would mean a considerable price increase of 5 euros per month). ), or switch to the more economical advertising model, where there are a total of four to minutes of commercial breaks per hour, which are played out in commercials of 15 to 30 seconds before and during films and series.