Netflix is giving Canadian viewers the option of a cheaper monthly subscription plan, as the streaming giant said it will celebrate on November 1 the launch of a new ad-supported streaming tier in Canada for $5.99 per month. The price is much lower than Netflix's ad-free plans, which start at $9.99 and go up to $20.99 per month. In exchange for the savings, Netflix said subscribers will see an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour placed before and during TV shows and movies. The experience also comes from Netflix's years of insistence that it would never move away from commercial breaks during its programs, a choice the company said helped build its reputation. But competition in the streaming space has intensified in recent years with new entrant Disney Plus quickly taking the company's place as the most popular streaming service. Additionally, Wall Street analysts raised concerns about Netflix's ongoing subscriber decline earlier this year if more people switched to alternative platforms. Greg Peters, Netflix’s chief operating officer, told reporters on a conference call, "We want to give consumers a choice and have them discover what is the best offer for them. That may mean some of our current members move away from a non-advertising plan. But if this is the best experience for them price-wise... we want to empower them to do that." However, not everything in the Netflix library will be available at the ad tier, and subscribers will not have the option to download titles for offline viewing. Peters also said these limitations are due to licensing agreements with distributors and will vary by country. He estimated that about five to 10 percent of TV and movies on the higher-priced tiers will be missing from the ad tier. Also, the break experience will be similar to what viewers see on other platforms, including Bell Media's CTV live streaming library. Before the program starts, a limited number of 15- and 30-second ads will play, while during the show, there will be a commercial fade. During the press conference, Netflix executives used an example from "Emily in Paris," where the commercial break was placed between the end of dialogue at a restaurant and an establishing shot for a new scene on the streets of Paris. Similarly, Netflix movies will follow a slightly different approach aimed at "preserving the cinematic model" for new titles, according to Peters, where instead of placing commercials inside the movie, the latest releases will have pre-roll ads only, while ads during playback will be offered after the title has been available for an unspecified period. Ads will ultimately be targeted through user profile details requiring people to provide their date of birth and gender at sign-up—with options for male, female, or prefer not to say/no preference. However, executives said ads will target only gender and not users’ demographic attributes.