Executives at Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service, have announced that its imminent ad-supported plan will not allow users to access all the movies currently on its catalogue. This comes after the streaming service company partnered with Microsoft to market an ad-supported tier in its subscription options.
Since April 2022, when Netflix officially announced that it would launch ads on its platform, there have been speculations about how the ads would operate, especially with Netflix’s recent efforts to end password sharing on the platform. The executives finally provided details on the ad-supported package during the company’s earnings review for the Q2 of 2022.
In an interview video, Netflix’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, maintained that though the ad-supported tier will contain most of the movies on Netflix’s catalogue, some movies will remain exclusive to higher paying users of the platform.
“There are some things that won’t—that we’re in conversation about with the studios on—but if we launched the product today, the members in the ad tier would have a great experience,” Sarandos said. “We will clear some additional content, but certainly not all of it.”
Netflix initiated the ad-supported plan in response to declining subscriptions on its platform, which has reportedly lost it about 970,000 subscribers in H1 of 2022 alone. However, the idea of attracting new subscribers who will not have access to some of Netflix’s catalogue raises concerns about the decision hurting Netflix’s business.
“We don’t think it’s a material holdback to the business,” Sarandos said.
The ad-supported tier launches in Q1of 2023.
