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In an effort to appeal to a wider audience, Netflix launched an ad-supported plan four months ago. However, there were a few devices that the plan did not support at the time, with Apple TV being one of them. This has now changed as the cheaper tier is available in the Netflix tvOS app starting this week. A Reddit user named websgeisti noticed the update yesterday and confirmed that Netflix’s Basic with Ads plan is now available on the latest version (2.3.0) of the Netflix app on Apple TV.
Netflix stated back in November that while the Basic with Ads plan wasn’t available on tvOS at launch, it would be coming soon. And now, Netflix has confirmed that support on tvOS is now available for the ad-supported tier. This is great news for Apple TV users who were previously unable to access the ads tier and were instead asked to either upgrade to Netflix’s pricier plans or try on a different device.
However, it’s worth noting that the ad-supported plan is not yet available on Chromecast, Chromecast Ultra, PlayStation 3, and the Netflix app for Windows. Despite the delay in adding support for these devices and other setbacks such as fewer titles, Netflix previously shared how happy it was about the success of its new tier. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Netflix President of Worldwide Advertising Jeremi Gorman said there is a “broad swath” of advertisers on the platform.
That being said, analytics firm Antenna reported that only 9% of new Netflix subscribers in the United States signed up for the cheaper plan a month after it launched. This is interesting to note as Netflix rolled out its $6.99/month ad-supported plan in November 2022 to subscribers in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. Ads are 15 to 30 seconds long, and there’s an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour. The Basic with Ads plan has a lower video quality of 720p HD, and subscribers can only stream from one device at the same time. Around 5% to 10% of Netflix’s content catalog is unavailable due to licensing restrictions. Plus, subscribers don’t have access to offline viewing with the ad-supported plan.
In conclusion, while the addition of support for Apple TV is a positive development for Netflix’s ad-supported plan, there is still much room for improvement. As more devices become compatible with the cheaper tier, it will be interesting to see if there is an uptick in the number of subscribers opting for this plan. For now, though, it seems that many viewers are still willing to pay a higher fee to avoid ads and access higher-quality content.
