Netflix’s Ad-Supported Tier Brings in More Subscribers than Expected

Netflix’s new ad-supported tier is a hit and has brought in an unexpected number of subscribers for the fourth quarter.

The ad-supported tier debuted in November at $6.99 per month in the U.S. This subscription service consists of four minutes of ads for every hour of content and is compared to Netflix Basic, $9.99/mo, Netflix Standard, $15.49/mo, and Netflix Premium, $19.99/mo.

Netflix had originally expected to get about 4.5 million subscribers during the fourth quarter after the addition of the ad-supported tier. However, the company announced that it added 7.7 million new subscribers. According to Forbes, that number is three times the amount of subscribers gained in the third quarter, totaling 230.8 million worldwide.

Netflix is reportedly going to maintain its $17 billion content spending budget this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter, but cut back on the number of films released. The streaming service plans to release 49 feature films compared to the 86 films released in 2022.