Netflix to add a cheaper subscription plan with ads
Cutting costs, but at what costs?
Netflix, the OTT streaming giant, is now introducing a new plan for those who can’t afford the base package and that’s the Ad-supported plan, expected to be priced at around $7-$9, according to Bloomberg, which is about half the cost of the $15.99 High Definition base pack.
Initially, the service aims to go with about 4 minutes of ad for every hour of footage, putting commercials before and during shows and movies which actually isn’t all too bad and better than services like Hulu while also being a good place to start as they look forward to creating a balance so viewers aren’t pushed away by excessive ads.
Netflix’s new ad-supported plan is expected to roll out globally next year
months of this year before a global release sometime early next year. This is obviously a move to get newer subscribers and make older ones stay as they’ll have the option to downgrade. Although the service saw a sudden burst in subscribership over the past few years they failed to sustain that wave due to a bunch of issues like cancelled shows, content that failed to catch the attention of viewers and more.
Bloomberg also reports that the service will not go for very heavy tracking in order to personalize ads and they will also try to make it so that the ad spots don’t repeat and bore out viewers, which honestly shouldn’t be a hard task considering a lot of advertisers would jump at the opportunity to put up their ads on a site like Netflix.
Now this isn’t a bad move. Offering cheaper subscriptions could in some ways increase the value of Netflix for some. However it seems like a workaround that they completely didn’t think through and instead of focusing on improving their content, they’re simply switching to a different model.
What do you think about Netflix having ads? Does it go against their primary objective? Let us know in the comments!
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