Netflix paying users will soon run into ads.
Netflix user numbers have dropped. ADobe Stock / AOP
In April, Iltalehti reported how streaming giant Netflix planned to bring ads to its service. Even then, the introduction of paid advertising was widely criticized.
Now New York Times Netflix reports that Netflix management has told employees that they hope the service will launch a cheaper ad subscription by the end of the year, indicating a faster – than – expected schedule.
CFO of Netflix Spencer Neumann back in March, plans for the ads were not part of the company’s plans “right now”. In April, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings noted that the company is fairly open to orders containing ads. Earlier, Hastings had stated that Netflix will investigate the situation in the next year or two.
The decision is strongly related to Netflix’s user loss. The company has lost large numbers of users since the coronary pandemic and 200,000 subscribers fell short of the user target in the first quarter. The freeze on Russian operations also left 700,000 users in the service. Netflix has also pushed down series and froze its larger projects.
Netflix is by no means the only company to have ads included. In the United States, for example, Hulu and HBO Max offer cheaper subscriptions that show ads. This was also referred to in the letter sent to the employees.
Netflix is also starting to push harder behind people who use the same IDs for viewing, even if they don’t live in the same household. Read more here.