Will Netflix find shelter in advertising?
According to the New York Times, Netflix may be introducing its low-priced ad-supported subscription plan by the end of the year
The Netflix revolution could start sooner than expected.
The video streaming platform could launch a low-priced subscription with advertising by the end of 2022, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The streaming leader also plans to begin cracking down on password sharing among its subscriber base around the same time, the report said, citing an internal note to employees.
The Los Gatos-based company is struggling as streaming competition is heating up: shares plummeted last month after Netflix recorded its first subscriber loss in more than a decade. Not only that, CEO Reed Hastings warned investors that he could lose 2 million subscribers in the second quarter of the year.
All the details.
ADVERTISING COMING TO NETFLIX BEFORE EXPECTED
The delay in subscriber growth prompted Netflix to consider offering a lower-priced version of the service with advertising. Netflix CEO Hastings said in the April earnings statement that the company "would roll out (the plan with ads) in the next year or two."
According to the Times , a recent note to employees claims executives are now aiming to introduce advertising subscription at some point in the last three months of 2022.
AS DISNEY PLUS AND HBO MAX RIVALS ALREADY DO
In the note, management backs up the move to launch an advertised offer for the platform citing the success of similar offers from rivals HBO Max and Disney +.
Disney Plus announced its intentions for ad-supported streaming in March. The Times writes that the Netflix note specifically mentions the fact that all of Netflix's streaming competitors, with the exception of Apple TV Plus, offer or have announced ad-supported streaming levels.
LIVING DOWN ON PASSWORD SHARING
At the same time Netflix also said it would block users from sharing passwords as competition and password sharing were making growth more difficult.
THE DISAPPOINTING NUMBERS AT THE BEGINNING OF 2022
Netflix's decade of continued growth came to a halt in the first quarter of 2022 . Netflix reported in April that it had 221 million subscribers, making it the leader in the streaming market, but that it lost 200,000 users in the first quarter of 2022. If that wasn't enough, it noted that it expects to lose another two million in the year. second quarter.
The loss of subscribers and pessimistic guidance have led investors to question the future growth of Netflix and even the entire streaming business.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia-on-demand/netflix-trovera-riparo-nella-pubblicita/ on Wed, 11 May 2022 05:10:24 +0000.