Netflix hasn’t quite killed the basic plan in Australia, but it sure feels like it might be living on borrowed time.
When I woke up this morning, it was to a bevy of headlines from the US and UK tech publications, all basically saying the same thing; Netflix had abandoned its entry level ad-free “Basic” tier in the US and UK.
Which of course made me ponder as to quite how long it would be until Australia followed suit. Quickly checking Netflix Australia’s pricing page showed the following:
Well… that doesn’t look good, now does it?
There’s a trap here, though, because there is a button at the bottom that says “show all plans”. It may as well say “show me the basic plan”, because that’s the only one that’s not displayed this way. Sneaky, Netflix, I see what you did there.
So what does that leave as your Netflix pricing options in Australia right now? Here’s the basic rundown:
| Netflix Plans | Price/Month | Resolution | Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard with Ads | $6.99 | 1080p | No |
| Basic | $10.99 | 720p | Yes |
| Standard | $16.99 | 1080p | Yes |
| Premium | $22.99 | 4K+HDR | Yes |
That’s… for now, though. I wouldn’t be shocked based on when I’m writing this if the basic plan doesn’t see out the day, but only Netflix knows for sure.
The smart money would suggest that it’s quite likely that the Basic plan isn’t long for our market. Overseas reports do suggest that if you’re already on the Basic tier you may be able to remain “grandfathered” onto it. Netflix certainly isn’t keen on promoting it, that’s for sure.