Netflix has officially released its ad-supported tier, but along with that option for the more budget-minded customer comes an additional setback you may not have known about: Fewer of the streaming service’s biggest titles.
Right now, you can go to Netflix’s website and sign up for the relatively cheap “Basic with ads” plan for only $6.99 per month. On the surface, it would seem the only drawbacks are having to tolerate ads in-between programming, dealing with a middling video resolution of 720p, and not being able to download content onto your device. But a third drawback exists that only becomes obvious once you have actually signed onto the streaming platform. Once you do, you will notice certain shows and movies will have a lock icon next to them and you cannot watch them unless you upgrade to a higher tier.
The number of titles that are unavailable ranges from 5-10 percent of the streaming service’s total collection, depending on the country you live in, according to Variety. The article stated the unavailable titles are due to “licensing restrictions” that Netflix is currently “working through.” Just what are some of these unavailable titles? They include a surprisingly high number of popular franchises, including:
- Arrested Development
- Breaking Bad
- Grey’s Anatomy
- How to Get Away With Murder
- The Crown
- Cobra Kai
- House of Cards
- Peaky Blinders
- New Girl
- The Magicians
- The Last Kingdom
- The Sinner
- Good Girls
- The Good Place
- Friday Night Lights
- Skyfall
- 28 Days
- The Imitation Game
- The Bad Guys
Netflix doesn’t provide an official list of unavailable titles on the “Basic with ads” tier, but the Variety article deduced the above sampling of them.
According to a press release by Netflix, the “Basic with ads” tier includes an “average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour” and that “a limited number of movies and TV shows won’t be available due to licensing restrictions, which we’re working on.”
