Netflix to introduce ad-supported plans to the streaming service

Netflix will soon be adding ad-supported plans to its service, said co-CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings during a company earning’s call on Apr 19 (Tuesday). 

The platform is looking at introducing ad-supported plans at a lower cost, which are expected to take off within the next two years.

Hastings said that he has always been against the “complexity of advertising” and a “big fan of the simplicity of subscription.”

“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 to get what they want makes a lot of sense.

“Think of us as quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice.”

This move comes after the streaming giant lost 200,000 subscribers globally within the first quarter of 2022.

This is also the first time the platform has lost subscribers in over a decade, and Netflix is projected to lose another two million subscribers in the current quarter.

Earlier this year, Netflix began charging users who don’t live in the same household more for sharing accounts. It has also raised its subscription costs twice since arriving in Singapore, the first time in January 2020 and the second in October 2021.