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Netflix to introduce ad-supported plan

15 points| sahin | 3 years ago |techcrunch.com

8 comments

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[+] mc32|3 years ago|reply
Ah, just like Cable.

Entice the service with a "no ads" pitch, get people hooked, then introduce the very ads that people were avoiding. Netflix is a little different in that they were somewhat pioneers of mass online video content (there were services for Hotels, but were commercial solutions), but still, it started without Ads and contrasted themselves against Hulu which had Ads.

Unlike cable, they have peoples viewing habits: you’ve been watching break up movies, can we recommend these self help books at Amazon and a match.com subscription?

[+] HWR_14|3 years ago|reply
Not at all. All streaming services are moving to add a cheaper "with ads" option. This is about adding customers who wouldn't buy from them anyway, not screwing their current customerbase.
[+] pentagrama|3 years ago|reply
Netflix in 2016 on his "Long-Term View" blogpost:

> We don't offer pay-per-view or free ad-supported content. Those are fine business models that other firms do well. We are about flat-fee unlimited viewing commercial-free.[1]

The reality is that "free" ad-supported products still big businesses and Netflix can't resist to do it. When a company have a matured brand, reach millions of people and a place in the cultural zeitgeist, seems inevitable that the hunger for more power and fear of decline make this people surrender and do things that they rejected in the past.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20161122044937/https://ir.netfli...

[+] mostertoaster|3 years ago|reply
In some sense the inevitable beginning of the end to what was once a novel idea.

Gotta make those numbers look better.