Netflix is getting a huge update it should've had years ago

Recently, it was confirmed that Netflix’s new “Basic with ads” subscription tier will be rolling out in several countries, including the UK, US and Canada, starting next month. This plan is pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to be - your usual, Basic level of Netflix, but with about five minutes of ads for every hour of viewing. Oh, it also doesn’t support downloads for watching offline, and will be missing some licensed content. But, it’ll cost £2/$3 less than the existing Basic plan, at £4.99/$6.99 a month, offering a more affordable option for some.

Anyway, it turns out that subscribers of the existing Basic tier are in for an upgrade. As reported by T3, Netflix has revealed that picture quality is also increasing next month, from 480p standard definition to 720p. Rejoice! Basic with ads will also offer streaming in 720p when it launches.

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“We're excited to announce that we are adjusting the video resolution from 480p to 720p HD for both our Basic with Ads and our existing Basic plan, so essentially the entire Netflix offering will be in the HD to Ultra HD domain,” Greg Peters, Netflix’s chief operating officer said (via T3).

As T3 writes, Netflix’s Basic tier has been stuck at 480p for over a decade, so it’s safe to say that this upgrade has been a long time coming. It’ll be rolled out at the same time as the Basic with ads plan, so that’s 1 November in Canada and Mexico, 3 November in the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan and Korea, and finally 10 November in Spain.

Users will be pleased to know that despite the upgrade, the price for Basic remains the same, at £6.99/$9.99 a month.