Reed Hastings says Netflix plans to offer cheaper, ad-supported plans and will examine what those plans will look like “over the next year or two”
ads and account sharing crackdowns could be next Huileng Tan / Insider : Netflix's CEO says he's open to creating a lower-priced tier with ads as the company bleeds subscribers Kat Bailey / IGN : Netflix Now “Quite Open” To Lower Prices Through Ad-Supported Subscription Model Issy Van Der Velde / TheGamer : Netflix To Introduce Ad-Supported Service, Invents Television Jay Bonggolto / Android Central : Netflix confirms a cheaper plan is in the cards, but there's a big caveat Joe Rogun / MSPoweruser : Netflix may offer cheaper ad-supported plans Anvinraj Valiyathara / Pricebaba.com Daily : Netflix to explore ad-supported plans after losing subscribers Hamid Ganji / Android Headlines : Netflix Aims To Offer Cheaper, Ad-Supported Plans Steve Vegvari / iPhone in Canada Blog : Netflix Plans to Introduce Ad-Supported Plans at a Cheaper Cost Dani Cook / Gameranx : Netflix “Quite Open” To Offering An Ad-Supported Plan Hollywood Reporter : Netflix Loses 200K Subscribers in Total Earnings Miss Napier Lopez / TNW : Say goodbye to sharing Netflix passwords, and say hello to ads Dade Hayes / Deadline : Netflix Will Add Advertising In “Next Year Or Two”; Co-CEO Reed Hastings Finally Concedes “Consumer Choice” Prompting Cheaper Plan Manish Singh / TechCrunch : Netflix to introduce ad-supported plans in a major shift Matt Tamanini / The Streamable : Netflix Adding Ad-Supported Option in ‘Year or Two’ According to CEO Brian Welk / The Wrap : Netflix Exploring Ad-Supported Tier at Lower Cost, Co-CEO Reed Hastings Says GSMArena.com : Netflix lost customers for first time in a decade, considers cheaper tier with ads Rob Golum / Bloomberg : Netflix Plans Lower-Priced Service With Ads, Marking Big Shift Maggie Tillman / Pocket-lint : Netflix backtracks: Suddenly, it's open to cheaper, ad-supported plan Tweets: Marco Arment / @marcoarment : I'm with @gruber on Netflix's woes: https://daringfireball.net/... Netflix used to be all we watched. Now, almost every good new show is somewhere else, and Netflix has become an endless sea of mediocre, time-wasting filler. Fix the content, and the subscribers will follow. Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 3/ I make the point that a better application of that technology than selling ads to external advertisers would be to integrate it into Netflix's growing content portfolio (which currently consists of games, potentially other apps someday) for cross-site personalization Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 4/ But what Netflix hinted at last night was not even the relatively lower-value pairing of that technology with advertising. It was: Netflix would outsource targeting to an external ad tech vendor and simply serve as a ‘publisher’. This approach has the lowest utility of all 3. https://twitter.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : Ads won't save Netflix—at least, not the advertising initiative that Reed Hastings described in the earnings call last night. Some thoughts in a thread (1/X) https://twitter.com/... Sebastian / @brotifa : They should call it something catchy. Like “cable” https://twitter.com/... Alex Weprin / @alexweprin : “It is pretty clear that it is working for Hulu, Disney is doing it, HBO did it. We don't have any doubt that it works.” Netflix embraces advertising: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ... Christina Warren / @film_girl : Apple TV+: Dark horse: cheap ($5 a month or less if you bundle), some great must-watch TV, mediocre catalog So you can dump Netflix, get Peacock, Paramount+, AND Discovery+ for less $$ or swap one of those options for Apple TV+ and STILL less than Netflix @gayguycandleco : Someone please just put all of these streaming services on one platform and let it become even more outrageously priced than the cable we all left for streaming so we can just get it over with. 🙄 https://twitter.com/... Dave Lee / @daveleeft : Netflix isn't in a great spot. Prices going up; clamping down on sharing accounts. Years ago decided to focus heavily on Originals instead of archive, losing films, and Friends, and The Office. Not interested in sport, which for decades has been a big driver of loyalty. @centristmadness : People will probably look back on this as an inevitability but imho they simply were bad at programming. They used algorithms based on what people watched the most on their service and ended up with derivative content and HBOMax and Hulu ate their lunch. https://twitter.com/... Whitney Merrill / @wbm312 : OH look now they'll expect you to PAY them to watch ads. Are you kidding me? Is Netflix the new Blackberry? https://twitter.com/... Christina Warren / @film_girl : I'm a huge Netflix fan, but searching for new subs could lead Netflix to making dumb, dumb, dumb. Decisions. B/c this is how the content landscape works today 🧵 Netflix: Most expensive, least must-watch content, smallest back catalog, best interface, ubiquitous Peter Kafka / @pkafka : Ad plan feels like “a very recent decision and a last minute throw-in to these earnings, and that makes me feel like things are even worse than they appear” says @benthompson https://stratechery.com/... https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Netflix's proposed lower-priced tier follows a test of paid extra members in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, showing the company was already testing ways to monetize viewing outside the core household subscription. The plan arrives after a reported 200,000-subscriber loss, against earlier coverage of subscriber misses, rising costs, and intensifying rivals.
The later record shows the proposal became a material business line: Netflix said it was on track to double advertising revenue in 2025 while preparing interactive ads. That makes this announcement an early pivot from a single-price subscription model toward multiple revenue levers.
First-order effects
- Netflix begins evaluating a cheaper ad-supported tier, giving price-sensitive viewers a lower-cost entry point while creating an advertising-sales business it did not previously operate.
- The company also has a second monetization lever in its account-sharing tests: primary account holders in the tested markets can pay for users outside their household.
Second-order effects
- Netflix must balance new ad revenue and incremental subscribers against customers moving from higher-priced ad-free plans, making tier design and pricing central to the rollout.
- Disney and Peacock face a clearer competitive signal that Netflix is willing to use advertising and household rules, not only content, to defend subscription economics.
Third-order effects
- Netflix's later advertising-revenue target suggests streaming competition is moving toward hybrid subscription-and-ad models, with audience scale serving both customer acquisition and ad sales.
- As platforms add household-based charges and lower-priced tiers, the durable unit of competition shifts from headline subscriber totals toward revenue extracted from each viewing household.
The trend: Streaming services are broadening beyond a single subscription price into tiered models that combine advertising, household monetization, and premium ad-free access.