PSA: Netflix’s ad-supported tier doesn’t have all shows and movies

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Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier launched yesterday, and some users were surprised to find out that not every show and movie on the platform is available with the new tier.

The Verge’s Jay Peters looked at Netflix’s new subscription option when it launched yesterday.

On top of finding a relatively unpredictable advertisement pattern, Peters noticed that many shows and movies were unwatchable with the cheaper tier.

Netflix says users will see around four to five minutes of ads per hour on the platform. While that seems to be the case, when the ads populate seems to be quite random.

Some shows and movies had no midroll ads, while others had several.

But the real surprise here is the number of shows and movies you can’t watch with an ad-supported tier.

The list of movies and TV shows not available on Netflix's ad tier is so long, I'm a little surprised.

— Chris E. Hayner (@ChrisHayner) November 3, 2022

Many popular movies are unavailable for watching on Netflix’s ad-supported tier. In fact, Netflix locked four out of the current top 10 movies in America for those who subscribe to the new ad-supported tier.

And it doesn’t stop with just movies. Several TV shows, including some of the most popular content on the platform historically, are locked with the ad-supported tier.

Many shows are not available on Netflix’s ad-supported tier including:

– ‘The Crown’
– ‘Cobra Kai’
– ‘Arrested Development’
– ‘Breaking Bad’
– ‘The Good Place’
– ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
– ‘House of Cards’
– How to Get Away With Murder’
– ‘New Girl’
– ‘Peaky Blinders’ pic.twitter.com/MJ0xHfJQ5j

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 3, 2022

Netflix most likely locks these shows on its ad-supported tier due to some licensing issues.

The company had previously warned that some shows and movies might be unavailable, but it was working to solve those issues.

Beyond the unavailable shows and movies, Netflix’s ad-supported tier is as expected. It caps streaming resolution to 720p, and you’ll get around 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour.

We wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix eventually cleans up its ad-delivery times in the future. But for now, it seems like ad placement within TV shows and movies is pretty random.

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