Is Netflix Thinking of Getting Rid Of The Basic Plan?

This reporter, like most people on this Earth, doesn’t subscribe to all the streaming services at one time. That would be foolhardy; a human only has so many hours in the day to devote to entertainment, and buying more than you can actually watch makes no sense. So with most of these services I buy access for a few months, watch everything that interests me, and then when I find my interest trailing off I cancel it.

The exception is when the service itself is cheap enough per month that I don’t have to bother. Netflix’s $9.99 basic tier has been this for me for nearly a decade, as I first bought access in 2014 (when it was $6.99) and have let it go this entire time. There are some draconian aspects to it (only one device can view it at a time, and until a couple years ago the resolution was 480p — no fooling), but it does the job I need it to.

But lately Netflix has started feeling punky enough to make decisions that their consumer base won’t like — such as cracking down on password sharing, a practice that I can’t imagine cuts THAT much into their bottom line. They tested this “feature” out in a few foreign countries and saw mass cancellations, but pushed ahead anyway. If someone decides to cross a line and doesn’t get punished for it, they will continue to cross more lines until they find the moment punishment happens.

So it has come out that Netflix is killing the Basic tier in Canada, to force everyone there into paying $5 more for access OR surrender to the Jake From State Farm Tier where Jake From State Farm tortures you every few minutes with his smarmy grin as punishment for not giving Netflix more of your money. They will very probably push this scheme out globally at some point if the loss of revenue isn’t too great.

If that happens, I’ll probably finally cancel the Netflix account that has taken one tiny, steady bite out of my paycheck for such a long time. It would no longer make sense to keep it going during the months I’m not viewing it. If more people are like me, this means less money goes to Netflix in the long run.