Netflix is planning to roll out less expensive advertising-supported plans (AVOD) alongside its subscription plans (SVOD).
As part of some not so great results as part of the company’s quarterly earnings call Tuesday, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings revealed the company will be examining what those plans will look like “over the next year or two”.
Hastings, who has been adamantly against adopting an AVOD strategy since the company’s inception, is now warming up to that idea:
“Those who have followed Netflix know that I have been against the complexity of advertising, and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I am a fan of that, I am a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price, and are advertising-tolerant get what they want, makes a lot of sense.”
Hastings adds the fact that AVOD tiers have been embraced by its competitors like Hulu, Disney and HBO which has led to his company changing its thinking as the model has shown to work for those competitors.
Hastings adds that when Netflix does launch an ad-backed tier, it would do so as a publisher without the data tracking and ad-matching that some competitors are embracing.
The news will come as music to the ears of various top marketers who have been pushing for the streaming giant to let them advertise on the service.
Source: THR
