Netflix officially kills its $10 Basic plan in the US and UK – here is what it means for YOUR account

Netflix dropped its basic $10 (£6.99) option in the US and UK on Tuesday.

Current users of the ad-free Basic plan can keep their membership until they cancel, but new and rejoining users do not have this option.

There’s now just a $6.99 (£4.99) Standard plan that plays ads five times during each viewing hour, a $15.49 (£10.99) Standard account with no ads and allows for two streams, or the $19.99 (£15.99) premium option that allows four streams.

The move comes as Netflix launched ad-supported subscriptions in 2022 that failed to take off with the public – fewer than one in five new customers sign up for membership.

Netflix’s website shows that at least five million customers worldwide use the Basic plan, but the number in the US and UK is unknown.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Netflix for comment.

The streaming platform pulled the Basic subscription in Canada for the first time last month with no official announcement.

But the move appears to be a way to entice users to opt for the ad-based options, a recent addition and revenue stream for Netflix. This is despite the fact that the company once promised never to post ads on the platform.

Data shows that only one in five new subscribers sign up for the plan with ads.

The ad-supported tier rolled out in 2022 with an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour, with each ad being either 15 or 30 seconds long.

The ads play before and during the content, which can infuriate viewers if they interrupt a particularly dramatic or exciting moment in the show.

But at the time of the rollout, Netflix assured its users that it had no plans to remove any of its three plans — Basic, Standard, and Premium.

Current users of the ad-free Basic plan can keep their membership until they cancel, but new and rejoining users don’t have this option

While this is a blow to new customers, Netflix’s password ban has had a bigger impact.

On May 23, the streaming giant cracked down on password sharing in the US by limiting its platform’s viewership to users living in the same household.

Customers who pay for standard or premium plans can share their credentials with someone for an additional $8 (£6.21) per month, a $2 (£1.55) discount off the company’s standard standalone plan .

Without giving details on how it verifies subscriber identities or accounts, Netflix assured anyone living in the same household can still stream TV shows and movies “wherever they are – at home, on the road, on vacation.”

The much-anticipated move has been looming in the US ever since it was unveiled by Netflix in 2021 to end lost revenue – Citi Bank estimated the company was losing $6bn (£4.5bn) annually from sharing passwords.