Looking forward to watching the new season of The Crown? You’ll have to pony up for a Netflix plan that doesn’t have ads, then.
The streamer’s new ad-supported plan officially debuted here in the U.S. on Thursday, and it does come with a lower price: $6.99 per month, less than half the price of the current Standard plan ($15.49/month). But it also comes with a few key titles missing, including popular Netflix original series like The Crown and Cobra Kai, according to our sister site Variety.
Along with those two, the following TV shows aren’t available to stream on the ad-supported plan: Arrested Development, Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Good Girls, The Good Place, Grey’s Anatomy, House of Cards, How to Get Away With Murder, The Last Kingdom, The Magicians, New Girl and Peaky Blinders. (Netflix has yet to release a full list of the shows not available on the new plan.)
So why aren’t these shows available? It comes down to licensing agreements with the production companies that haven’t been ironed out. (The Crown and Cobra Kai both hail from Sony Pictures Television.) Netflix warned when it first announced the ad-supported plan — which comes with 4 to 5 minutes of commercials per hour — that “a limited number” of titles would not be available at launch “due to licensing restrictions.”
Does the lack of big shows like The Crown and Cobra Kai make you less likely to switch to an ad-supported Netflix? Hit the comments below to share your thoughts.