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Netflix is pricing its ad-supported service at $6.99 a month, which will be $1 less than Disney+ and Hulu with commercials.
Commercials will be 15 or 30 seconds in length and will play before and during Netflix’s content.
Netflix’s “Basic with ads” tier will include an average of four to five minutes of commercials and will have 720p resolution.

The Netflix logo is seen on a TV remote controller, in this illustration taken January 20, 2022.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Netflix will charge $6.99 per month for its new advertising-supported tier, which the company will roll out in the U.S. on Nov. 3.
Netflix’s “Basic with ads” tier will include an average of four to five minutes of commercials each hour and won’t give users the ability to download movies and TV series. A limited number of TV series and movies will initially be unavailable due to licensing restrictions.

Ads will be 15 or 30 seconds in length and will play before and during Netflix’s content. Companies will have the ability to prevent ads from appearing on content they deem unsavory or unsuitable. To help advertisers understand its reach, ratings company Nielsen will use its standard digital audience measurement, Digital Ad Ratings, in the U.S. beginning in 2023.
Netflix is launching its first less-expensive plan with commercials after years of rejecting the concept. The move comes as subscriber growth has plateaued in recent quarters. Netflix lost subscribers in the first two quarters this year and expects to add just 1 million customers in the third quarter. The company has about 221 million subscribers globally, which makes it the largest worldwide streaming service.
Netflix will announce its third-quarter earnings after the market closes Tuesday and plans to unveil new subscriber and revenue forecasts, according to Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters. Netflix is partnering with Microsoft for its advertising-supported service. The streaming company will have hundreds of advertisers at launch and has nearly sold out its inventory, the company said in a media conference call.
Initially there will be no advertising within kids programming and new movies. Older films may have mid-roll advertising.

Pricing below Disney

Netflix’s $6.99 per month pricing is less expensive than ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu, which will both be $7.99 per month when Disney+’s ad tier launches in December. HBO Max with ads is $9.99 per month.

Netflix priced the service so that any customer who switches to the ad-supported service from the ad-free basic plan will have a “neutral to positive” effect on the company’s revenue, according to Peters.
That suggests Netflix will get at least $3 a month per user in advertising revenue.
“We want to offer consumers choice and figure out what the best offering is for them,” Peters said during the conference call.
Video resolution for Netflix’s advertising tier will be 720p rather than 1080p, the quality of Netflix’s standard plan that costs $15.49 per month. The company’s basic plan without advertising is $9.99 per month and also has 720p resolution.
The advertising tier will initially be available in Canada and Mexico on Nov. 1, followed by Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the U.K. and the United States on Nov. 3. Spain will launch on Nov. 10.

The price of streaming

Netflix$6.99 − basic with ads$9.99 − basic without ads$15.49 − standard without ads
HBO Max$9.99 − with ads$14.99 − without ads 
Hulu$7.99 − with ads$14.99 − without ads 
Paramount+$4.99 − with ads$9.99 − without ads
Peacock$4.99 − premium with ads$9.99 − without ads
Disney+$7.99 − with ads*$10.99 − without ads*
*Available starting in December

WATCH: How Netflix lost its edge in the streaming wars

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Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., the SPAC set to take Trump Media public, jumped Thursday.
The move comes after Google added former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform to its Play Store.
The app had previously been barred from the store for content moderation concerns.

Donald Trump’s social media app “Truth Social” in Apple’s App Store on an iPhone.
Christoph Dernbach | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., the shell company set to take Trump Media and Technology Group public, surged after former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social social media platform was allowed on the Google Play Store Wednesday.
Shares of DWAC closed up more than 14% at $18.30 Thursday. Nasdaq paused trading of DWAC for about five minutes Thursday morning during the jump. The stock’s peak this year was about $97 in March.

The change means that the app is now available on the app store for the 44% of smartphone users in the United States who have an Android device. Android users could previously access the platform through their web browser or through “side-loading” the application through the Truth Social website.
Read more: Supreme Court denies Trump bid to void ruling in Mar-a-Lago documents case
The app had previously been barred from the Google Play Store for violating Google’s guidelines for moderating user-generated content.
“Apps may be distributed on Google Play provided they comply with our developer guidelines, including the requirement to effectively moderate user-generated content and remove objectionable posts such as those that incite violence,” a Google spokesman said Wednesday.
Truth Social agreed to enforce content moderation and to remove and block users who publish posts that incite violence, according to Google.

The platform was founded by Trump after he was banned from Twitter in January 2021 “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” after hundreds of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol. 
Shares of DWAC fell in early October when Elon Musk said he would buy Twitter. The billionaire has previously said that he would reinstate Trump’s account. The former president had over 80 million followers on Twitter, but he has only around 4 million on Truth Social.
Read more: Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena Trump to testify under oath
Investors have cited these anemic numbers among their reasons for pulling funding from the DWAC-Trump Media merger. The company lost $138 million of its $1 billion private investment after a key deadline passed in September.
DWAC is currently pushing to extend the deadline for the merger, which is currently set for Dec. 8. The company needs 65% of shareholders to approve a yearlong extension, but it has thus far failed to get adequate support. Without the extension or the completion of the merger, DWAC would liquidate Dec. 8. The shareholder vote has been delayed until Nov. 3.
The deal is also the subject of a Justice Department probe into possible securities violations relating to undisclosed discussions between the companies prior to the merger announcement. A whistleblower and founder of Trump Media and Technology Group, Wiliam Wilkerson, flagged the potential violations to the SEC.
“One way or another, this company is going to go bankrupt,” Wilkerson recently told the Miami Herald. “I don’t think the company is going to be approved by the SEC.”
Trump Media has said the company is exploring legal action against the SEC for delaying the deal.

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We reviewed our Bullpen stocks during the Investing Club’s October “Monthly Meeting” on Thursday. The Bullpen is a collection of companies we actively monitor for their potential to be added in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust, which is the portfolio we use for the Club. Here’s a quick look the seven stocks and our latest thoughts on each. Barrick Gold (GOLD): Investors would think that with geopolitical tensions, inflation, and economic uncertainty, this is time for gold to shine. But the precious metal is being held back as interest rates go higher and as the dollar has strengthened. That’s why we prefer to leave Barrick on our watch list, if not remove it outright in the days and weeks ahead. Gold and interest rates have an inverse relationship: When rates rise, the price of gold tends to fall and vice versa. Gold, which is traditionally viewed as a safe-haven investment in tough times, also faces stiff competition from bonds yields. The 2-year Treasury currently yields around 4.5%. Emerson Electric (EMR): We see this technology and engineering company, which has exposure to industrial, commercial, and residential markets as a “problematic” stock as its end markets slow down. The company seems to be breaking apart as a way to unlock value. In March, Emerson entered into an agreement to sell its subsidiary, Therm-O-Disc , a climate technology company. In August, EMR sold food disposal manufacturer, InSinkErator to Whirlpool, another Bullpen name. We’re waiting for Club holding Honeywell International (HON) to benefit from an industrial tailwind — so, until then, we prefer to keep EMR on the sidelines. PepsiCo (PEP): This beverage and snacks giant is a timeless safety-stock due to the quality of its beverage and snacks portfolio. That’s certainly a recession-resistant trait we like in a slowing economy. If we were to initiate a position Wednesday would have been a good place to start, before the company reported fiscal third quarter earnings beating Wall Street expectations and increased its forecast for the year. PEP shares surged 4% on the news Wednesday and another 3% in Thursday’s strong market. We’re keeping PepsiCo in mind, especially as its stands to benefit from prices of cans, bottles and plastic in general coming down. Whirlpool (WHR): We added the stock to the Bullpen as we saw potential in the strategic review of its EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) business, its roughly 4.9% annual dividend yield and its stock buyback program. However, Jim Cramer calls it a “casualty” of the housing market, which has been suffering from rising rates. Whirlpool may get hit by slower demand in a weakening economy. In its second quarter , Whirlpool’s net sales in fell by 4.3% to $5.09 billion from the same period the year prior. The company is due to report Q3 earnings a week from Thursday. Palo Alto Networks (PANW): Jim has said before that cybersecurity is one of the last bull markets . “We need to get rid of something and buy Palo Alto,” Jim said Thursday, though as of now the Club has not decided whether to make the move yet or even at all. The software company is favored because data security is in high demand from enterprise customers, and Palo Alto Networks is an industry leader. Airbnb (ABNB): While we’ve been focused on the defensive names, we think this peer-to-peer home rental platform is a disruptive tech play that will keep benefitting from growing demand for travel after years of tighter Covid restrictions. We are particularly impressed with Airbnb for its cash flow. We also like how consumers see Airbnb as an alternative, cheaper option to hotels, a positive in a weaker economy. But if there’s a recession, consumers may pull back on travel spending; so we prefer to continue monitoring the company. Sempra Energy (SRE): We’re interested in this diversified utilities and infrastructure company. In an economic downturn, investors tend to move to utilities for safety. We like the stock for its solid annual dividend yield of 3.12%. Shares of SRE have dropped roughly 16% month over month, possibly from its exposure to natural gas. But the stock has still gained about 8% a year when the S & P 500 has dropped nearly 23%. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long HON. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on June 27, 2022 in New York City.
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Netflix said Thursday that shows on its ad-supported plan in the U.S. will have ratings available from Nielsen sometime in 2023.
Nielsen ratings will allow advertisers to better understand the size of Netflix’s audience.
Netflix’s ad-supported plan will cost $6.99 and launch in November.

SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Nielsen ratings are coming to Netflix Inc.
Netflix announced Thursday that will start using Nielsen’s digital audience measurement in the U.S. to give advertisers an understanding of its reach. It said the Nielsen ratings will start sometime in 2023, marking the first time the streaming giant will have the ratings available for its content.

The move comes as Netflix prepares to roll out a plan with ads that costs $6.99 a month in countries including the U.S. on Nov. 3. The streamer is looking for other ways to grow its revenue after losing subscribers in recent quarters.
Jon Watts, managing director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, said the deal indicates that Netflix is serious about its new ad-funded tier, and is embracing the wider media and advertising ecosystem.
“It also raises interesting questions about the future evolution of the market, with TV and streaming converging, and learning to co-exist,” Watts said.
Nielsen is the go-to ratings agency for broadcast and cable-TV shows, allowing the advertising industry to have an idea of the size of the audiences reached by various programming. Live sports, especially events such as the NFL’s Super Bowl, and news programming, are often among the top-rated moments on television.
Amazon Prime recently partnered with Nielsen to track its audience for “Thursday Night Football,” which began airing on the service in September. Amazon is the first streaming service to have the exclusive rights to a package of NFL games, which will last through 2033.

On Netflix’s ad-supported plan, there will be an average of four to five minutes of commercials per hour, and ads will span 15 seconds to 30 seconds when the new option launches. A limited number of TV shows and movies won’t be available on that plan due to licensing restrictions, the company said.

The price of streaming

Netflix$6.99 − basic with ads$9.99 − basic without ads$15.49 − standard without ads
HBO Max$9.99 − with ads$14.99 − without ads 
Hulu$7.99 − with ads$14.99 − without ads 
Paramount+$4.99 − with ads$9.99 − without ads
Peacock$4.99 − premium with ads$9.99 − without ads
Disney+$7.99 − with ads*$10.99 − without ads*
*Available starting in December

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Holiday sales are starting earlier this year as retailers try to unload excess inventory and entice shoppers worried about inflation.
Discounts are expected to hit record highs for categories such as electronics, toys and computers, according to Adobe’s online-shopping forecast.

Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale may be over, but the discounts have only just begun.
“Black Friday is here,” said Julie Ramhold, a consumer analyst at DealNews.com, noting that sales that traditionally rolled out on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day are starting earlier this year.

In addition to Amazon, big-name retailers like Target, Walmart and Best Buy are also getting a jump on the holiday shopping season with discounts on all types of gifts.
More from Personal Finance:32% of Americans are struggling to pay their billsConsumers prioritize Netflix, Amazon Prime over groceries, gasNearly half of Americans make this mistake with credit cards
With year-end sales starting earlier, retailers are hoping to lure shoppers with promotions well before the traditional buying season, as consumers become increasingly concerned about higher prices.
Contrary to shoppers’ inflation-era fears, discounts this year are actually expected to hit record highs for categories such as electronics, toys and computers, according to Adobe’s online-shopping forecast.
Excess inventory is playing a role in the price cuts, said Deborah Weinswig, founder and CEO of Coresight Research. “There is a glut of inventory and it underscores the widespread expectation of a highly promotional fourth quarter,” she said.

Shoppers should look for retailers to experiment with pricing strategies, as well, Weinswig predicted, including more discount codes and bundled offers.

How to get the best price on holiday gifts

To maximize your savings, experts advise that you should start price tracking now. 
Ramhold recommends creating a holiday list and then using a price-tracking browser extension such as Camelcamelcamel or Keepa to keep an eye on price changes and get price-drop alerts for the items you want.
“Expect to see 50% to 60% off, and that may jump to 70% off on Black Friday,” she said.
In addition, some retailers like Target offer a price-match guarantee, which means any purchases made now could qualify for a price adjustment if the price drops any lower.
For consumers, “there are a lot of perks to shopping early this year and one of them is price matching,” Ramhold said.
“If you can get a leg up, you can save yourself some time and stress and some cash while you are at it.”
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The companies may agree to a deal as soon as this week, sources told CNBC’s David Faber.
Kroger is the largest supermarket operator in the country with banners including Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Soopers, Harris Teeter and its namesake brand.

Kroger could announce a deal to buy rival grocery company Albertsons this week, sources told CNBC’s David Faber.
Shares of Albertsons jumped and were briefly halted Thursday morning after news that two companies are deep in talks. The stock was up more than 11% in afternoon trading. Kroger rose modestly.

The all-cash acquisition may be announced as soon as Friday morning, sources told Faber.
Kroger is the largest supermarket operator in the country with about two dozen banners, including Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Soopers, Harris Teeter and its namesake brand. It has nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states and about 420,000 employees. The company trails behind Walmart, which is the top grocer in the U.S. by revenue.
Albertsons is made up of 20 banners, including Safeway, Acme and Tom Thumb. It has more than 2,200 supermarkets in 34 states and Washington, D.C. Albertsons has 290,000 employees, according to its website.
Kroger is the larger of the two companies, with a market cap of about $32 billion. Albertsons’ market cap is about $15 billion.

Kroger and Albertsons by the numbers

KROGER

2,800 stores in 35 states
420,000 employees
25 banners, including Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Soopers and namesake stores

ALBERTSONS

2,200 stores in 34 states and Washington, D.C.
290,000 employees
22 banners, including Safeway, Acme, Tom Thumb and namesake stores

Source: Company websites, Factset

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The Interior Department announced that it will use some of the $4 billion in drought mitigation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to pay farmers, cities and Indigenous tribes for drawing less water from the Colorado River.
The program will focus on pushing for voluntary water cuts in the three lower Colorado River Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada, the department said on Wednesday.
The plan will pay applicants a set amount of money per acre-foot of water that they voluntarily don’t draw from drought-stricken Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir.

The Hoover Dam water intake towers at Lake Mead, the country’s largest man-made water reservoir, formed by the dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, has dropped 2 inches every day since February (26 feet in one year), are viewed at approximately 25% capacity on July 12, 2022 near Boulder City, Nevada. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
George Rose | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Interior Department this week announced that it will use some of the $4 billion in drought mitigation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to pay farmers, cities and Indigenous tribes for drawing less water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.
The program will focus on pushing for voluntary water cuts in the three lower Colorado River Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada, the department said on Wednesday. The plan will pay applicants a set amount of money per acre-foot of water that they voluntarily don’t draw from Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir. One acre-foot of water supplies roughly two households each year.

Reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin have hit their lowest levels on record after 22 consecutive years of drought made worse by climate change. In just five years, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the river’s two largest reservoirs, lost 50% of their capacity as the U.S. West grapples with the two driest decades in the region in at least 1,200 years.
As part of the new plan, applicants will receive higher payments for longer periods of voluntary water cutbacks, the department said. A one-year agreement will pay $330 per acre-foot, a two-year agreement will pay $365 per acre-foot and a three-year agreement will pay $400 per acre-foot.
The federal government in August announced a second round of mandatory cuts for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico from the Colorado River, which supplies water and power for more than 40 million people across the West.

More from CNBC Climate:

Beginning in January, Arizona must curb its water usage by 592,000 acre-feet, which is about 21% of the water the state uses. Nevada must curb its use by 25,000 acre-feet, which is about 8% of the state’s water use.
So far, mandatory cutbacks have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the state’s available water supply to irrigate their crops. The Colorado river helps fuel about 2.5 million acres of croplands across the western U.S.

States in the Colorado River Basin also missed a deadline set in June by the Bureau of Reclamation to reach a voluntary agreement on how curb water consumption by 2 million acre-feet from the river.
“The Interior Department is committed to using every resource available to conserve water and ensure that irrigators, Tribes and adjoining communities receive adequate assistance and support to build resilient communities and protect our water supplies,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
The Interior announcement came while President Joe Biden visited Colorado to designate the World War II-era military site Camp Hale as a national monument, a decision that will protect the region from new development.

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The early data from Pfizer looked at blood samples taken from 40 people ages 18 to 55 and 40 people older than 55 who received the omicron booster.
Both age groups saw a substantial increase in antibodies that block the BA.5 subvariant from invading human cells.
The FDA has authorized Pfizer’s boosters without direct human data on how they perform against the omicron BA.5 subvariant.
Pfizer said it will release more immune response data in the coming weeks.

Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Thursday said their new omicron boosters substantially increased protective antibodies against the dominant omicron BA.5 subvariant for adults in the first direct human data released to the public on the new shots.
The study looked at blood samples taken from 40 people ages 18 to 55 and 40 people older than 55 who received the omicron booster. Both age groups saw a substantial increase in antibodies that block the BA.5 subvariant from invading human cells, according to the companies.

Pfizer also compared 40 people older than 55 who received the omicron booster with 40 people in the same age group who received a fourth dose of the first generation vaccine. The participants who received the first generation vaccine saw a limited increase in antibodies against BA.5, according to the companies.
The time between administration of the third dose and the omicron booster was about 11 months, while the time between the third dose and fourth dose of the first generation vaccine was six months.
The early data indicate that the safety profile of the new boosters is the same as the original vaccine, the companies said. Pfizer and BioNTech said they will release more immune response data on the shots in the coming weeks.
“These early data suggest that our bivalent vaccine is anticipated to provide better protection against currently circulating variants than the original vaccine and potentially help to curb future surges in cases this winter,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.
U.S. health authorities have approved Pfizer’s omicron boosters for everyone ages 5 and up. The shots target both the BA.5 subvariant as well as the original version of Covid that first emerged in China nearly three years ago. The first generation shots were developed only against the first strain of the virus.

Health officials in the White House have said the new shots should provide much better protection against omicron than the first generation vaccines as the country faces a possible winter surge. The first generation vaccines are no longer providing meaningful protection against infection and mild illness because the virus has mutated so much.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized the omicron shots without direct human data on how they perform against omicron BA.5, which is causing most infections in the U.S. right now. The agency relied instead on human data from a similar shot developed by Pfizer against the original version of omicron, called BA.1, as well as data from animal studies that directly looked at how the shots perform against BA.5.
The FDA moved quickly to roll the shots out this fall in an effort to head off a surge of infections. As a consequence, Pfizer did not have time to collect data from clinical trials. Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA vaccine division, has said the agency authorized the omicron shots using the same process employed every year to update flu shots, which also normally doesn’t rely on human data.

CNBC Health & Science

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