Netflix will phase out its Basic plan, which gave customers an ad-free option for $11.99.
Transcript:
Conway Gittens: Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
It was a tense day for the business world as it coped with what is being called the biggest global computer outage in history. Wall Street also grappled with changing investor sentiment, just as earnings season shifts into high gear. Big tech is on deck in the coming week with Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon releasing quarterly results. Tesla, Coca-Cola, and UPS are some of the other key names to report next week.
The pace of economic growth will also be in focus. Next week we get a read on second-quarter Gross Domestic Product – or GDP.
In other business news: Netflix is nixing its cheapest ad-free streaming plan. The $11.99 plan is going the way of the DVD. Instead, customers with the so-called Basic plan will have the option to move up to Netflix’s Standard ad-free plan for $15.49 a month or its Premium plan at $22.99.
There is one other option, however. Subscribers can switch over to Netflix’s ad-supported plan, which costs roughly $7 a month. This offering is catching on with viewers, who may have been forced to get their own accounts after Netflix started cracking down on password sharing. Sign-ups for the cheap plan, complete with commercials, surged 34 percent during the second quarter.
Meanwhile, total subscriber numbers – at nearly 278 million – were at an-all time high at the end of June, far eclipsing rivals Disney+, Peacock, and Max. Netflix added more than 8 million paying users over the April to June period alone, resulting in better-than-expected quarterly profits.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I”m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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