Netflix's cheapest plan is now available on Apple TV

Months after its launch, Netflix's ad-supported plan has finally made it to the Apple TV with limited quality and streaming.

The company launched the streaming tier in November for consoles, Chromecast, iOS, Amazon Fire, and various smart televisions. It didn't initially support tvOS but now the plan is available in the latest version of the Netflix Apple TV app.

The "Basic with Ads" subscription plan costs $6.99 and has some limitations. For example, on average, Netflix says that viewers can expect to see about four minutes of ads per hour, which may differ based on the TV show or movie.

Content is also limited to 720p quality, which stands out from the 1080p and 4K offerings from other services on Apple TV. Basic with Ads only allows one stream per account, and users can't download content for offline viewing.

Still, some people may find the affordable plan worthwhile, as Netflix has steadily increased the prices of its plans over the past few years. The company has also cracked down on sharing passwords to try to force people to sign up for their own accounts and boost subscriber numbers.

Netflix plans

Netflix Basic with Ads is available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Netflix app is available from the App Store and requires iOS and iPadOS 15 or later or tvOS 16.1 and later.

Plans include Basic with Ads at $6.99 a month, Basic at $9.99 per month, the Standard plan at $15.49 per month, and the top-tier Premium offering at $19.99 monthly. Only the lowest-tier plan has advertising, but the two in the middle still have a couple limits.

The Basic plan supports 720p content, and downloads and viewing shows on one device at a time. Viewers finally get 1080p content in the Standard plan, and doubles the number of devices for downloads and watching content.

Finally, the Premium plan offers 4K TV shows and movies. On this plan, people can watch on four devices at a time but download on six devices. This plan also offers Netflix Spatial Audio.

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6 Comments

Appleish 711 comments · 8 Years

About 1 year ago

Twenty bucks for 4K while other streaming services include it in their basic plan. What a ripoff.

jcs2305 1340 comments · 11 Years

Appleish said:

Twenty bucks for 4K while other streaming services include it in their basic plan. What a ripoff.

$20.00 for 4k and 4 streams that they don't want to share... it's a joke.

netrox 1494 comments · 12 Years

jcs2305 said:

Appleish said:

Twenty bucks for 4K while other streaming services include it in their basic plan. What a ripoff.

$20.00 for 4k and 4 streams that they don't want to share... it's a joke.

Did you not understand the consequences of sharing passwords with others that aren't authorized or sending copies of software not licensed to others?

Companies are fed up with losing revenues as a result of that kind of illegal activities. That's why nowadays we are requiring that if they want to use software or services, they must be online and activate it (when in the old days, we could easily make copies) and now we're doing the same with illegal password sharing activities requiring that every device be registered and authorized.

CarmB 91 comments · 4 Years

While I agree that 4K should be included in every tier, the truth is that even at 720p the picture looks decent on a good 4k TV. The set upconverts and as long as it’s a good quality set, that upconversion yields very good results. At least that’s my experience on my Sony 4k sets. The ads are not really all that much of a pain, either. As long as one is fine with a single feed, the ad-supported tier is a great deal.

djames4242 654 comments · 14 Years

netrox said:

jcs2305 said:

Appleish said:

Twenty bucks for 4K while other streaming services include it in their basic plan. What a ripoff.

$20.00 for 4k and 4 streams that they don't want to share... it's a joke.

Did you not understand the consequences of sharing passwords with others that aren't authorized or sending copies of software not licensed to others?

This sort of thing often punishes legal users while doing little to prevent illegal behavior. Back when I used Microsoft Office, its activation system frequently told me my code had been used too many times despite the fact that I’d had to re-image my hard drive and reinstall. It was a nightmare having to call in and wait for an actual human to reset my license, while pirates are easily able to download cracked versions of the software.

My daughter is off at college now and my son leaves after this summer. Are they no longer going to be able to use out Netflix account even though they’re still eligible for all the other family benefits that are out there (while, again, pirates can easily download Netflix content to circumvent what should otherwise be allowed)?