Advertisements are coming to Netflix

One thing that a lot of people enjoyed during the lockdown was the endless hours of streaming their favorite shows and re-watching them all over again without the hassle of being shown an advertisement. We just kept going and allowing the stories to draw us in with no distraction from ads whatsoever.

Fast forward to 2 years after, it seems that NETFLIX is changing its policy regarding that.

In a recent first-quarter earnings call, the streaming giant’s co-CEO, Reed Hastings, recently announced that this is a choice that they are presenting to subscribers in the next two years. He said that implementing the inclusion of advertisements on their platform could drive down their subscription prices.

“One way to increase the price spread is advertising on low-end plans and to have lower prices with advertising.

“Those who have followed Netflix know that I’ve been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I’m a fan of that, I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice,” he said.

Hastings added that by allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant to get the kind of subscription that they want makes a lot of sense for the company. It’s something that they are looking into now and are trying to figure out how to fully implement the new scheme over the course of the next two years.

A little over before the pandemic, Netflix went on hand to reassure investors that advertising was not in the company’s long-term plan, but a reduction in their computed figures for global subscription as well as the emergence of other competitors like Disney+, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video may have forced the streaming giant to reconsider and renege on its promise.

While two years is still a little long way off to start getting ticked off by ads during a series or movie marathon, Hastings emphasized that regardless of the new inclusion, the ad-free choices will still remain in place.

In short, premium price for no ads and a lowered subscription rate for those who would not mind an ad or two, or maybe even another one.

We’ll see in two years.