Netflix is reportedly looking to introduce new ad-supported plans, providing cheaper subscription options to subscribers. This quickly follows as the streaming service reports that it lost 200,000 subscribers across Q1 2022.
The company is said to be looking into possibilities of an ad-supported tier “over the next year or two,” says Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings during its earnings call. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix COO Greg Peters stated that advertising “is an exciting opportunity for us.”
“Those who have followed Netflix know that I have been against the complexity of advertising, and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,” Hastings said. “But as much as I am a fan of that, I am a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price, and are advertising-tolerant, get what they want, makes a lot of sense.”
Hastings went on to identify the successes of Netflix’s competitors. The company is looking at streaming services like Hulu. “It is pretty clear that it is working for Hulu, Disney is doing it, HBO did it. We don’t have any doubt that it works,” Hastings went on to say. It appears as though Netflix may introduce a model similar to Hulu’s in the US.
The report goes on the confirm that Hastings was adamant about introducing ads without data tracking and ad-matching. Instead, Netflix will serve as an advertising publisher when ads are folded in.
Currently, Netflix offers three plans in Canada. The Basic plan is available for $9.99/month and offers 480p streaming to one device. Standard, on the other hand, is available for $16.49/month and enables 1080p streaming on up to two devices. The $20.99/month Premium plan covers 4K HDR streaming on up to four devices. Introducing an ad-supported tier could bring down the entry-level cost to something comparable to Apple TV+, which costs $5.99/month.
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They say they lost 200,000 customers but they also lost 700,000 in Russia. So, did they lose 900,000 or gain 500,000? I’ll continue to do whatever I can to share passwords. The streaming services will end up losing customers and revenue of people start choosing which ones to use rather than sharing and using all of them.
I think they lost 700,000 in Russia but gained 500,000 worldwide, for a net loss of 200,000.
Of course, the fact that they lost 200k customers is in no way related to the price increases they threw at their users in the past years…
I wish that was the case, then they might learn a lesson. But the fact that they are attributing the net loss of 200k to the loss of 700k in Russia, I don’t think they’ll learn anything.