Netflix has announced that its new ad-supported tier will launch on November 3, 2022.

The new service promises an "average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour" at up to 720p (also for the Basic plan). This is a significant improvement over the 480p resolution that came with the Basic plan when I first joined.

It'll be interesting to see how well the new service compares to Tubi. Right now, Tubi has the best ad engine in the business. The viewing experience compares well with OTA channels like ION and MeTV. Likewise, Tubi streams at up to 720p.

Tubi's one big failing is discovery. While it does divide titles into genre categories like "Anime" and "Foreign Language TV," aside from a general keyword search, it lacks specialized filter functions like language and can't sort alphabetically.

Tubi has an impressive amount of Japanese language content in the Foreign Language categories, but it's not easy to track down. Unlike K-drama, there isn't a J-drama collection. Try keyword searches for "Japan" and "Japanese" instead.

Of course, Tubi is free while the "Basic with Ads" plan will cost $6.99/month (I do expect fewer ads per hour). I dropped Netflix last March when it raised the price of its Standard plan to $15.49. This price point is far more tolerable.

Netflix is rolling out the service worldwide. Variety lists the prices for the major international markets at the bottom of this article.

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Labels: anime, business, japanese tv, netflix, streaming, tubi