Is Netflix’s “Basic with Ads” the least popular of its plan options?

According to a new report from Antenna, 9% of Netflix sign-ups in the United States in November were to the “Basic with ads” plan, making it the least popular of their plan options. In addition to the Basic with ads subscribers who signed-up for Netflix, Antenna observed 0.1% of Netflix’s existing US subscribers switching to the Basic with ads plan in November.

Similarly, HBO Max saw a mild pickup when it first launched its ad-supported option in June 2021. As Antenna previously reported, 15% of HBO’s sign-ups in the United States were for HBO Max with ads in its launch month.

Antenna found that 0.2% of existing US HBO Max subscribers switched to the ad-supported plan in its launch month, about double the Netflix switching rate. The popularity of the HBO Max with ads plan did increase over time, accounting for as many as nearly one in three sign-ups over the course of its first year in the market. Currently, Antenna estimates that 21% of HBO Max subscribers use the ad-supported plan.

“Consumers have demonstrated that, with the right pricing and packaging, they will opt-in to ad-supported video services. In fact, services that launched from day one with an ad-supported tier (or, in Hulu’s case, launched ad-free, but introduced an ad-supported option many years ago) have much higher share of subscribers selecting the ad-supported option,”  Antenna’s report said.