OREANDA-NEWS  In a move once thought to be unthinkable, advertisements are coming to Netflix. The streaming giant announced ads would be coming to the platform six months ago. On Thursday, they announced when it will be coming and how much it will cost.On November 3, Netflix customers will be able to sign up for the “Basic with Ads” plan. It will be available in the US, UK, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Brazil and Australia. In the US, it will cost $6.99 a month, with other countries having similar prices in their local currency.

The new tier is in addition to their ad-free Basic, Standard, and Premium plans. Those plans will be mostly unaffected by the change and will not include ads.The Basic with Ads plan and the ad-free Basic plan will stream at a maximum resolution of 720p. Previously, the (ad-free) Basic plan streamed at 480p (standard definition).Basic with Ads will include four to five minutes of advertisements per hour. Most of the catalog will be on the ad-based plan, but Netflix says “a limited number of movies and TV shows won’t be available due to licensing restrictions.” Netflix says it is working on bringing its entire library to the ad-based plan. Ad-based users will also be unable to download titles.Netflix also says it will be working with Nielsen to help advertisers reach their target audience.In a 2019 letter to shareholders, Netflix said that being advertising-free was “a deep part of our brand proposition,” but that viewpoint seems to have changed after a tumultuous 2022, which saw Netflix lose subscribers for the first time in more than a decade. The past few years have also seen multiple well-funded competitors enter the streaming space, eating into Netflix’s market share.