After much talk about a more affordable Netflix subscription plan that featured advertising, there is finally movement on that front.
Following the confirmation that Netflix has been working on the subscription option in June, Netflix has now announced that it will be working with Microsoft to serve viewers advertising. Microsoft will handle advertising globally and act as Netflix’s sales partner.
“Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we work together to build a new ad-supported offering. More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members,” chief operating and product officer, Greg Peters said in a statement.
Microsoft is rather excited to be able to offer advertisers a path onto Netflix and said that its approach will be built on protecting customers’ information.
“We’re thrilled to be named Netflix’s technology and sales partner to help power their first ad-supported subscription offering,” Microsoft’s president of web experiences, Mikhail Parakhin, said in a statement.
“At launch, consumers will have more options to access Netflix’s award-winning content. Marketers looking to Microsoft for their advertising needs will have access to the Netflix audience and premium connected TV inventory,” Parakhin added.
The launch of an ad-supported subscription tier is Netflix’s ploy to lure more subscribers to the platform. The COVID-19 pandemic fudged the numbers given so many people were inside with nothing to do. Now that the world is reopening, folks have canned their subscriptions and that’s not good for Netflix.
In addition, Netflix has noted that many subscribers are sharing accounts, in fact it estimates that as many as 130 million households are sharing accounts.
Whether an ad-supported tier is enough to breath life into Netflix, is something that remains to be seen but we have our doubts.
With all of this being said, we suspect that there will news about the ad-supported tier on Netflix soon given an advertising partner has now been selected.
