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Netflix is expected to launch a new tier with advertisements at a lower price, and a new report may have already revealed how much it will cost. The company is also said to limit how many commercials will be shown in every hour of content.
Bloomberg reports that the Netflix ad-supported plan could be priced between $7 to $9 per month. The low end of this pricing represents less than half of the current cost of the Standard HD tier. It now costs $15.50 per month in the United States after a price increase earlier this year. And in comparison with one of its biggest competitors, the Disney+ ad-supported tier is currently offered at $7.99 per month.
The streaming giant started entertaining the idea of offering an ad-supported plan after taking a strong stance against it for years when it lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade. Netflix now hopes to gain new subscribers while encouraging existing customers to maintain their memberships with the introduction of a more affordable ad-support tier.
Netflix might also have an advantage in terms of the number of advertisements it will introduce on its platform. The streaming giant reportedly plans to only include four minutes of ads in every hour of content, which is considerably less than its rivals. Commercials are also planned to appear before and during programs only.
Netflix reportedly eyes “smaller deals” at first to avoid making big promises to advertisers while not bombarding viewers with too many commercial spots. An earlier report also claimed Netflix does not plan on showing ads in its original movies, but they will likely be present for the streaming giant’s TV shows.
One of the few details Netflix has confirmed about its ad-supported tier is that it will not have the same catalog as its ad-free plans. The company is also expected to follow Disney+ in not showing commercials in children’s programs.
Netflix has yet to announce when its ad-supported plan will launch. But Bloomberg said it will initially go live for “at least half a dozen” countries in the last quarter of 2022.
Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash
