Netflix axes cheapest ad-free plan for newbies

LeesArt

The recent antics at Netflix have caused us to dump it and with a bitter feeling, so it is unlikely any of our family will return.

It seems to us that Netflix hiked the price to £16 which is double what we paid when we started with them because they turned a blind eye to the sharing of accounts (our kids went to Uni and only rarely watch Netflix on their laptops because they have a lot of work).

We got seriously P'ed off with the plethora of messages which made us out to be thieves despite paying for their service for years.

At first we thought it was OK, we would just split down to separate accounts but as this article shows they have now removed that and also this meant lower quality resolution, so no way.

This caused us to have the same sort of "rethink" we did about Sky and the BBC, both of which were dumped many years ago.

We came to the conclusion that actually the quality of Netflix content has been dire, we stood by Netflix during the pandemic despite them flooding the platform with movies from the 90's and even some from the 70's.  This was not premium content.

Since then the quality of the content and terrible user interface mean that we do not think Netflix is worth it.

Before these recent changes we had a concept of value because the whole family had access and we paid it because we thought our kids wanted it while they thought we liked it.  This reminded me of Sky years when they blocked Disney kids when we cancelled Sky Movies, we ended up dumping Sky because we did not like them using our kids to exploit us.

As a proof of concept I even setup a work around based on what family members who live abroad have done, but to be honest we just felt that Netflix is not worth it, the content is now drivel.  Previously the strength of Netflix was it's own made content so it did not end up in a bidding war, now it is repeats and naff content from 2017 and not even the recent series (e.g. Killing Eve S1 and S2 but no later series).

Don't take my word for it, like the content that you think you like, then lookup the content you liked on IMDB, if it is less that 68 then unlike it.  I have actually seen Netflix content rated at 3, so we are totally in drivel town.

Then they want to offer us ads, well that is a NO GO, I am not paying one penny for ads based content, we do not even have the Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5 content because of being force fed ads.

All we are waiting for now is the BBC to create an App for which we will subscribe if it is reasonable, the BBC are sitting on content that is worth billions worldwide, all they need to do is make their own app the sole source of the content, they could afford to sell it for $1 a month worldwide and even developing countries would sign up because it would be less hassle than downloading.

So after a trial of not using Netflix we dumped it, one of my kids was offered a deal on Apple TV because they subscribe to Apple music, they were legitimately able to give that to all of us.  It has it's own issues, the interface is really bad but we only use it to access a few free series or films, we wait until any series has been fully released as we do not like to be drip fed content.

We may free trial some Paramount or others, but probably we will use torrents, something we have not done for many years, in fact previously Netflix made it not worth it.

The funny thing is we do not miss it, I thought we would but it is surprising how it was just habit, it actually had too much content (mostly trash) and an interface that made it hard to find content you liked.

There is so much competition for Premium TV and Netflix seems to have forgotten what it was about, which was premium content for a reasonable price. Now they have massively damaged their brand, I seriously doubt we will go back because we feel like we have been herded and cattle prodded.  We would have quite happily paid £15 a month but now they get NOTHING and our kids are as bitter towards the brand as we are.

I know Netflix have U turned in other countries but to be honest I do not know if I want to be a customer of a company that treats us like this.  Maybe we are not their demographic or maybe they think they can hike their prices and survive on less customers (what killed off the national lottery and led to Camelot losing the franchise), but they ignore the "social" aspect of this.  We complain about Netflix to all our friends and we hear the same back.  I have challenged friends to not use the app for a month to see if they really miss it and several have dumped it as a result of not seeing value in Netflix.

Now while they might improve, we will not know and we are left annoyed and angry with Netflix, if we hear of some fantastic programming one of my kids will download it and so we will not miss out on anything, but Netflix lost £180 of our money.  Sky lost £60 a month since 2008, the BBC lost £150 a year since around 2012, goodbye Netflix.

LeesArt

nrmsmith said:

I was on the Basic £6.99 pm package on an 2 months on 4 months off twice a year package.  Now the cheapest is £10.99 to rejoin, it’ll be on for 2 months 7 months off.  Not that there’s much there I want to see anyway.

We considered that but decided it was not worth the hassle, also we want to send a message to Netflix that they lost out, so rejoining would be a no no.  As you said "Not that there’s much there I want to see anyway".

JSmithy45AD

"Don't take my word for it, like the content that you think you like, then lookup the content you liked on IMDB, if it is less that 68 then unlike it.  I have actually seen Netflix content rated at 3, so we are totally in drivel town."

Who bases what they watch on IMDB ratings???

Neil_Jones

LeesArt said:

Don't take my word for it, like the content that you think you like, then lookup the content you liked on IMDB, if it is less that 68 then unlike it.  I have actually seen Netflix content rated at 3, so we are totally in drivel town.

I think you mean 6.8 out of 10, not 68, IMDb doesn't work in scores out of 100.

And anyway, IMDb isn't a be all and end all of anything.  The rating system is weighted for a start.  The IMDb rating is only a number. Although it can be useful and informative by itself, there are many other factors which should be considered when trying to evaluate a title.

But more importantly:  One man's greatest film/TV series ever made is somebody's else's load of unsubstantiated drivel that should never have been made in the first place.

PZ19

Long post that Lees Art…bottom line on anything is if you don’t like it don’t buy it…if  you don’t have licence do you not watch tv at all now?

wild666

Get a VPN for under £70 for two years, I have a 5 year subscription to my VPN as I first signed up to them in 2018 but after two years I found I couldn't log in so went with another VPN then they offered me another 5 years at £64 in 2022  and you can watch streaming sites like tubi TV that has loads of shows and films totally free. 
I wouldn't pay £10.99 a month 36.6p per day to watch some of the stuff that Netflix has never mind the other paid streaming services. I cancelled my Netflix account in April 2022 and haven't looked back as there is loads of British TV shows on Tubi.