Adflix - Netlifx to add comercials to subscriptions

[Arika]

Summary

Normally on a video streaming service, you have to pay to remove ads. In a baffling move, Netflix has decided to ADD ads into their subscription only service. No, they are not going to offer a free tier, they will have them on a lower priced subscription coming within the next few years. It was one of the points of difference netflix always had, now they have gone at thrown it in the dumpster along with what was left of their reputation.

 

Quotes

Quote

 

It's the end of an era for Netflix. While the service has long been praised for its total lack of ads and commercials, Netflix is reversing its course on the matter. On Tuesday, Deadline reported that Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said that ads will soon be incorporated into the service. 

 

Hastings' comments come shortly after Chief Product Officer Greg Peters acknowledged that there would be differences in pricing for subscriptions in different territories. Both Hastings and Peters discussed the current state of Netflix, and its future, during the company's first-quarter earnings call, which was posted to YouTube on Tuesday. During the interview, the CEO noted that they will begin to implement advertising on Netflix in the "next year or two."

 

"Those who have followed Netflix know that I've been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription." Even though he has been against the incorporation of advertising in the past, he acknowledged that this would be a necessary step for the streaming platform. He also said that this would be a positive for Netflix subscribers, as it will give them "consumer choice" and the ability to choose a cheaper subscription, albeit one with advertisements. 

Quote

"But as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice money," he continued.

My edit

 

Quote

However, more consumers appear comfortable mixing ads with their streaming, so long as it's affordable. A December survey from Forrester found 44% of U.S. online adults who use a streaming service will put up with ads if it means they pay less.

"Ultimately consumers will follow the content and the overall value they’re getting when choosing which streaming services make their watch list," said Forrester VP and Research Director Mike Proulx.

 

My thoughts

Netflix seems to be a worse option every day lately. higher costs, less shows, and now ads. Yes I'm aware services like Hulu and HBO also have an ad-supported tier, but if you are PAYING for a streaming service, it should not have ads, period. If your financial model can't continue without shoving ads into it somewhere on a paid product, then you need to re-evaluate your company costs.

 

I don't have a Netflix account anymore, but i am still extremely against this. X as service will become more expensive and have more ads as time goes on, and i for one, absolutely hate it.

At least Sony and Microsoft had the decency to keep it relegated to F2P games.

 

Sources

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/04/20/netflix-ads-impact-subscribers/7379645001/

https://popculture.com/streaming/news/netflix-officially-adding-commercials/

[tikker]

> Predicts to lose 2 million more customers.

> Adds ads to subscriptions.

 

13 minutes ago, Arika S said:

He also said that this would be a positive for Netflix subscribers, as it will give them "consumer choice" and the ability to choose a cheaper subscription, albeit one with advertisements. 

I just noticed that apparently the Basic plan doesn't even give you HD quality. Has that always been the case? How hard would it be to give the consumer an actual choice and offer other combinations like 1 screen but UHD or 4 screens but simply HD.

[FliP0x]

2 minutes ago, tikker said:

> Predicts to lose 2 million more customers.

> Adds ads to subscriptions.

 

I just noticed that apparently the Basic plan doesn't even give you HD quality. Has that always been the case? How hard would it be to give the consumer an actual choice and offer other combinations like 1 screen but UHD.

Yeah, that doesn't make much sense.

 

They give you the option to play o multiple devices simultaneously, but don't want you ti share your account with friends and family.

 

Yes, the basic tier has always been HD only. The higher you go in the tier list, the better quality you get.

 

Ads in a paid product don't make much sense to me. Why pay for a service (company makes money) and then get ads served on top of it (company makes more money).

 

If they want to introduce ads to Netflix, a more consumer friendly option would be to keep paid plans "premium" and without ads, while offering a free plan with a limited selection of titles and ads. With this approach, Netflix could actually get more people on their platform, who will potentially buy a subscription to get access to the full library and get rid of ads.

 

Netflix officials, if you're reading this, follow me for more business tips.

[Lightwreather]

So, it's just cable tv with more (or fewer) steps?

btw, their share prices fell quite a lot (~35% iirc, correct me if I'm wrong) after the announcement

[RockSolid1106]

[tikker]

6 minutes ago, FliP0x said:

Yes, the basic tier has always been HD only. The higher you go in the tier list, the better quality you get.

I meant that the basic tier does not seem to offer HD. "HD available" is only ticked under the Standard and Premium plans for me. Of course this is pure marketing as this'll make you just go for  Standard at least, but it's why I think allowing custom combinations of screens and resolutions would be great.

[Spotty]

It wasn't that long ago that Netflix raised their prices (again!). Now they're planning on offering a cheaper plan but supporting it with ads. Raise prices, offer "cheaper" plan at the old price but now with ads. Brilliant. Now you either have to pay more or get ads.

The monthly subscription cost of Netflix has increased by about 70% since I signed up a few years ago, Netflix claims it's because they are adding more quality content, but it's obvious that Netflix is losing a big chunk of content every time another company spins up their own streaming service. Netflix can't rely on its own Netflix Produced content especially not when it's charging more than most other streaming services.

 

29 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

btw, their share prices fell quite a lot (~35% iirc, correct me if I'm wrong) after the announcement

Their share price fell drastically with the announcement that they lost over 200k subscribers in the last quarter after they had projected 2.5M increase in subscribers during the same period. They're also now projecting a further 2 million subscriber loss in the next quarter.

Who knows how advertisements on the platform will affect stock price. Maybe investors will see Netflix adding advertisements as a good thing for the company, after all investors only care about the bottom line and profits. You have to remember that stock price is based on what the investors think a company is worth and not what the general consumers think.

 

39 minutes ago, tikker said:

I just noticed that apparently the Basic plan doesn't even give you HD quality. Has that always been the case?

Yeah, I believe you always needed the middle tier "Standard" plan for HD content. I don't think Netflix states the resolution for the Standard Definition content on the cheapest "Basic" plan other than "Standard Definition" but I believe it's between 480p and 576p depending on the content.

 

32 minutes ago, FliP0x said:

If they want to introduce ads to Netflix, a more consumer friendly option would be to keep paid plans "premium" and without ads, while offering a free plan with a limited selection of titles and ads. With this approach, Netflix could actually get more people on their platform, who will potentially buy a subscription to get access to the full library and get rid of ads.

I believe that's what they're doing. Keeping the more expensive plans as they are but introducing cheaper ad-supported plan(s).

 

It's worth noting that other streaming platforms also offer similar cheaper ad-supported plans, it's not like what Netflix is planning on doing with ad supported plans is new to the streaming industry:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/04/20/netflix-ads-impact-subscribers/7379645001/

Quote

Hulu has a $6.99-a-month plan with ads and a $12.99-a-month option without the ads.

HBO Max offers similar plans, with a $9.99-a-month subscription with ads and one for $14.99 that strips ads but supports features like offline downloads.

Last month, Disney announced it would introduce an ad-supported version of Disney+ this year but didn't provide information on prices.

[tikker]

6 minutes ago, James Evens said:

It is fine. DRM prevents anyway the delivery of higher Resolution (at least on my devices).

What a mess.

8 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Yeah, I believe you always needed the middle tier "Standard" plan for HD content. I don't think Netflix states the resolution for the Standard Definition content on the cheapest "Basic" plan other than "Standard Definition" but I believe it's between 480p and 576p depending on the content.

Ah ok. I hope HD includes 1080p then at least. That feels like a weird gap to have otherwise. For me it will really depend on what the ad-supported plans will offer exactly.

[Blademaster91]

Paying and still getting ads, I don't like this at all, and its a weird move after they want to stop people from sharing accounts with friends and family, Netflix lost 200k subscribers after that announcement.

And streaming services could just increase the price of their higher tier services then just claim you can use their paid ad supported tier if you don't like the price increase. I hope Netflix loses enough subscribers they are forced to either lower prices or provide HD resolution at lower tiers.

[SADS]

well... glad i don't pay for it now then XD

[SupaKomputa]

I don't mind having apps to keep the price low, i just hope not intrusive, like in the middle of a movie.

If the ads is in the homepage not a problem. just another eye sore i can skip, no popups.

I subscribe netflix for their exclusive content, so i have no other choice (or i can pirate haha).

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

It's worth noting that other streaming platforms also offer similar cheaper ad-supported plans, it's not like what Netflix is planning on doing with ad supported plans is new to the streaming industry:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/04/20/netflix-ads-impact-subscribers/7379645001/

Other streaming platforms are cheaper than Netflix without ads, Hulu is $12.99 and Disney+ is $7.99, so I wonder how Netflix is going to compete, although they do have more marketshare.  But IMO unless you like exclusive content on Netflix it isn't worth it with the increased pricing.

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, tikker said:

What a mess.

Ah ok. I hope HD includes 1080p then at least.

It does but getting to watch it in 1080p is like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle.

 

Most browsers can only show it in 720p cos Google's Widevine doesn't do higher for software DRM. Edge (on Windows) and Windows apps can do 1080p or 4K (4K plan required) cos they use Windows' hardware based DRM.

 

Other than that a smartphone or tablet or set top box with hardware based DRM is required.

 

This is the same with any service using Google's Widevine DRM which means all of these: Disney+, Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount+, NBC's Peacock, and probably a few others that I'm missing.

1 hour ago, tikker said:

That feels like a weird gap to have otherwise. For me it will really depend on what the ad-supported plans will offer exactly.

 

[TetraSky]

I genuinely stopped caring about Netflix a few years ago. Too much stuff, too little stuff I wanted to watch and the overall dickbaggery that locks higher res behind specific hardware, browser or what have you.
Now if there's a show I want to see... I wait for a bit, subscribe during a time when I have free time and cancel my subscription right after. (This is something I wish was possible with regular cable TV...)

[AndreiArgeanu]

It looks like Netflix is trying to speed run bankruptcy as of late

[paddy-stone]

Should rename to Notflix

 

I seriously don't get how some companies think they are the god's testicles, and can do whatever they want and still retain customers. To me the customer would always come first, seeing as they are the ones parting with their cash for whatever your company is offering. They should instead look at how much managers are making that are driving the train off the tracks.. salaries should be commensurate with how well the company is doing. Not pay the managers big bucks and then go "oh no, we;re not making enough money, let's put the prices up again so that next year the CEO can pay for his mistress to have that new house in the Cayman islands, so she can dive into all the gold like scrooge mcduck"

[idkwhat]

I do wonder how much of Netflix's bizarre decision making of late is purely a result of not really having a growth trajectory from here. The share price sky rockets due to covid but with increased competition there's just not a path for Netflix to grow all that much more. 200+ million subscribers seems like a small fraction of the global population, but most accounts are shared, some people are never going to pay a subscription, and some amount of password sharing will always take place. I honestly doubt that the max number of subscribers a service can obtain without having significant free options is going to significantly exceed where Netflix is now. So, the next attempt at increasing profit consists of cutting the amount Netflix spends on content and raising prices, hoping that the inconvenience of unsubscribing is enough to keep people. We'll see where it goes from here, though I went ahead and canceled my subscription yesterday.

[CTR640]

First we'll be finishing the Netflix series so I can completely cancel my subscription. Netflix has canceled a lot of great shows, there is no reason to cancel them too.

At some point it's not even funny anymore, prices keeps raising, bullshit decisions are to be made, officials remains braindead, canceling a movie with Will Smith because he slapped people around like a mad man and now ads while paying.

 

And to those stupid fucking morons out there saying "you get ads because you have it for free" Well, are you still saying that bullshit? Do you still stand by that bullshit?

[tikker]

11 minutes ago, CTR640 said:

And to those stupid fucking morons out there saying "you get ads because you have it for free" Well, are you still saying that bullshit? Do you still stand by that bullshit?

Small difference here that it's not free. It will still be a paid subscription, but with ads. If they put out an actual free tier with ads there would likely be much less outcry about it.

[CTR640]

Just now, tikker said:

Small difference here that it's not free. It will still be a paid subscription, but with ads. If they put out an actual free tier with ads there would likely be much less outcry about it.

I know, it's fully understandable you'll get ads if you get something for free and that makes sense. But there are still a lot of idiots out there standing by that bullshit. You are the product if you get something for free like Fecesbook. But what about you still get ads if you pay for something?

 

It's not just only for for subsriptions, it applies a lot of others like the Ring doorbells. There's been controversy about them, can't remember them exactly.

[CephDigital]

*grabs pirate hat*

[darknessblade]

6 minutes ago, CephDigital said:

*grabs pirate hat*

What series/movies Neflix made, is worth pirating?

You will not find any treasure at all

[darknessblade]

There is also the first signs that Neflix is making their service even worse

 

 

Netflix cancels multiple shows amid huge subscriber loss

Quote

Netflix is already cancelling multiple shows and movies after its recent subscriber and financial problems.

According to The Wrap, the streaming giant has pulled the plug on numerous in-development Netflix shows. The company's animation department has been hit hardest by the issues currently plaguing Netflix, which has suffered downturns in its market value and subscriber base since the turn of the year.

 

 

https://www.techradar.com/news/netflix-cancels-multiple-shows-amid-huge-subscriber-loss

[CephDigital]

21 minutes ago, darknessblade said:

What series/movies Neflix made, is worth pirating?

You will not find any treasure at all

Eh tbf I cant remember the last time I did pirate anything off Netflix. It's all trash nowadays.

[Quackers101]

10 hours ago, RockSolid1106 said:

(meme)