Well, today is the day! After months of Netflix teasing and threatening that it would be introducing ads for a lower price point, this week, Netflix added their ad-supported tier for $6.99 a month… even though they said for years they would never have ads, but hey, people change! So do million-dollar companies too, evidently.
The only problem (well, there are a few problems but we don’t have time to dissect all of them) is that the shiny new plan doesn’t work for anyone with an Apple TV. They really tried though, and you have to give them credit for rushing to get ads on there instead of spending all that money churning out another season of Stranger Things before the cast is old enough to collect social security checks.
Apple TV owners who might have been itching to try out the new cheaper plan will have to wait a little longer. In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson said, “Basic with ads plan support on tvOS is not available at launch but coming soon.” We all know that when Netflix says “soon” it could mean anything from a few months to years, so that’s fun.
The fumble isn’t a huge surprise, since the ad-supported subscription was originally supposed to launch in 2023, and Netflix scrambled to get it out in time for the holidays when their main competitor Disney+ is also introducing ads. Ads! For everyone! All the time!
As of right now, Apple TV users who wish to try out the new plan will either have to use it on a different device or upgrade to a more expensive plan with no ads. Maybe this was their plan all along–to get people to pay for more plans! How many times can YOU use the word “plan” in a sentence?!