How subscription tiers work
Each tier is a set of entitlements with a price and a billing period. When a subscriber presses play, the service checks their tier to decide whether the title is included, which quality to serve, whether ads run and how many devices may stream at once.
Subscribers can move between tiers. An upgrade usually takes effect immediately; a downgrade at the end of the current period.
What tiers usually differ by
- Advertising: with ads or ad-free
- Video quality: HD, Full HD or 4K
- Simultaneous streams and registered devices
- Offline downloads
- Catalog: a base library, or the library plus premium or live content
- Billing period: monthly, quarterly or yearly at a discount
How many tiers to offer
Two or three is enough for most services. Each tier should have one clear reason to choose it; if two tiers are hard to tell apart, viewers pick the cheaper one or leave the page.
Price tiers per market rather than converting one price into every currency, and add an annual option to lower churn among committed subscribers.
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