135 Titles Still Blocked on Netflix’s Advertising Tier in the US

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As of September this very year, American Netflix users of its advertising tier no longer have access to 135 films and TV shows. The number of films represents about 1.81 percent of its U.S. backlog and that includes about 7,470 titles.

When it debuted in November 2022 as a lower cost option to the viewers, its ad supported plan had some limitations from day one. When it debuted, 5.1 percent of the backlog was already unavailable to watch by stream, that meant 326 titles could not be streamed. By February of 2023 that number climbed all the way to 348 titles making up 5.4 percent of the entire collection. As time passed, that number declined. By February 2024 only 175 titles were prohibited and by December of that year that number declined again to 151, to make up 2 percent of the collection.

The biggest cause of those ongoing limitations is licensing. Two of the largest studios involved are Sony and Universal. Sony’s unavailable content is largely its films and DreamWorks Television shows that have been blocked by it. This includes some new films that come straight to Netflix from theaters as well as the older films from its backlog.

The result is that the ad tier subscribers do not gain access to the same content as those on higher tiers, even when the shows or films are promoted as part of the Netflix catalog.

Some of the Netflix Originals are also locked on the advertising plan. Not just any regular show, these are long standing dramas like House of Cards and cartoon shows like Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and even Fast and Furious Spy Racers. Special movies that are attached to well known franchises like Captain Underpants and Kung Fu Panda are also unavailable.

It's worse because there are also some well known licensed movies that cannot be streamed with ads. Movies like Ali, Boyz n the Hood, Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and both of the Amazing Spider Man films are locked along with newer films like Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter.

A number of its TV shows are also blocked including Queen of the South, Dirty John, Van Helsing and Time The Kalief Browder Story.

Even though unavailable titles have dropped dramatically from 2022 levels, Netflix has made no indication of whether they'll lift all of the remaining restrictions. The company still face some licensing limits that stop it from making every program available to all subscribers, and the ad supported tier is still affected. For now, the figure stands at 135 movies and shows that cannot be watched through the advertising plan in the United States.