It was an open secret. Now it’s official. Netflix takes the step of advertising to find colors and subscribers. On Thursday, the Reed Hastings service announced the imminent arrival of a new subscription at a lower cost. A lower price, but that comes with an important philosophical concession: the programs will be interspersed with advertising. Called Essentials with advertising, it is the 4th level of subscription launched by Netflix. It will be available on November 3 in France, at 5.99 euros per month.
Less content, offline
For the lower price of the ad-supported Essentials offer, Netflix also reduces its offer. Subscribers will have to settle for a broadcast in 720p (SD quality) and access only 85% of the current catalog (movies, series, games, documentaries). The remaining 15% corresponds to franchises recovered through acquisitions and whose rights have not been negotiated to add advertising. Netflix promises that its original content and flagship series will obviously be available (The Queen, The Paper House, The Bridgerton Chronicle, Squid Game, Strangers Thingsetc.).
The offer is non-binding and retains all the usual platform options (multi-media, personalization, random content, list, etc.). However, it will not be possible to download your favorite series to watch them offline.
So what will the advertising look like? Nothing exceptional that doesn’t already exist on the internet: when a movie or series is released, one or more commercials are shown to watch them in full, before a second interruption during the broadcast.
The company promises that it will not exceed 4-5 minutes per hour in total. For a series episode, this should correspond to 30 seconds before the start and 60 seconds during the episode, in a well-studied time to avoid cutting a scene, a dialogue or another.
No advertising for children
Netflix promises to limit the frequency of campaigns so as not to see the same ad several times, with a negative effect for the viewer. Ad options can even be targeted much better to reach a receptive audience. Brands will thus have the possibility to choose to target a type of film or series, or not to associate their image with certain genres of programs. The company specifies that the ad will not be broadcast to children’s profiles.
At Netflix we do not hide that this new offer should serve to stop the loss of subscribers that has been observed for a year (almost one million fewer subscribers). This doesn’t stop the streaming video tenor from rearing in the lead with more than 220 million subscribers, but it does see Disney+ (which also has an ad-supported offering in its bag) coming on strong. And for its ad-supported offering, Netflix would target the additional 40 million subscribers for the third quarter of 2023.
This change in strategy, with also Reinforcing the supply of Netflix Games to attract players, it should allow the recovery of some of the old subscribers who had left the platform after successive price increases. Or those who don’t mind seeing advertising pages appear (which obviously can’t be skipped or shortened) as long as it saves money.
Source: BFM TV
