Netflix's ad-supported plan has over 23 Million Monthly users
A Netflix executive has said that the streaming service's ad-supported tier has over 23 Million users per month. The company says that user engagement on the ad-supported plan is high.
The streaming platform introduced the ad-supported tier in November 2022, in select regions. While analysts had expected the idea to backfire and cause subscribers to cancel their membership, the strategy proved to be a successful one.
It was not a smooth ride for the company, at least, not initially. Netflix increased the prices of its ad-free plans in some Countries, and several users had argued that the company had deliberately increased the cost of its ad-free plans to make its ad-supported plan more attractive. The streaming service also began imposing stricter rules in a bid to crackdown on password sharing among users. This resulted in a mass exodus of users leaving the platform, with as many as 1 Million users in Spain cancelling their subscriptions.
But, surprisingly, Netflix made a strong comeback. The ad-supported plan, which had less than one million subscribers in the U.S. in March 2023, grew to over 5 Million subscribers in May 2023. It didn't stop there. Netflix saw remarkable growth over the past year, accumulating nearly thrice the number of users, adding almost 9 Million new members in the third quarter. The ad-supported plan boasted 15 million monthly active users by November 2023. It appears that the service is still gaining momentum, as it has amassed 8 Million users in less than 2 months.
Netflix's president of advertising, Amy Reinhard, told Variety that the streaming service now has over 23 Million global monthly active users. The company had announced to its shareholders in October that the ad-supported subscription accounted for 30% of all new signups on the platform in all 12 Countries where it is available.
Reinhard says that user engagement is high on the ad-supported plan. 85% of users on Netflix's ad-supported plan stream videos for more than 2 hours per day. This is also beneficial for the company, as more viewers means it earns more revenue from advertising.
Netflix has plans to monetize its gaming platform.
Netflix offers various games as part of its subscription, including many original games that are developed by its first-party studios. It even managed to rope in the Grand Theft Auto: Trilogy-The Definitive Edition, after partnering with Rockstar Games. Netflix is testing game streaming on TVs and computers, the feature has been in beta since August last year.
A recent report by The Wall Street Journal says that the streaming giant is working on ways to monetize its gaming platform. The company plans to introduce ads in games, and charge an extra fee for sophisticated games. We could potentially see in-app purchases in games too. The streaming service has invested over $1 billion for acquiring game studios, and its budget is set to increase as it moves towards console-quality games. These games could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and is part of the reason why Netflix has had internal discussions about the possibility of charging for the games.
On a sidenote, if you are annoyed by the ads, you may want to take a look at Streaming Enhanced, an add-on for Firefox and Chrome that skips ads on Netflix, Disney, Prime Video and more.
I terminated my Dutch TV channel subscription 20 years ago because of the constant advertising interruptions and haven’t watched TV anymore since then.
But I suppose the Americans are used to it since US TV is saturated by ads so why not add another source of advertising if it means free programmes.
I am from the US, and I never watch a single ad (I don’t watch much TV to begin with, but when I do want to view something like a sporting event, I always DVR it and simply fast forward past any ads and other filler. An additional advantage when I watch an American football game is that I can avoid the pre-game chatter and the half time shows as well. Its a great time saver). Having said that, I’d far prefer to watch ads than have programming that is run by or controlled (directly or indirectly) by government agencies.
Many Americans, particularly younger ones have their own strategies to avoid ads as they migrate a way from network and cable programming. The world has changed and it become far easier to do. Don’t generalize.
TV started here in the U.S. in the early 1950’s. We had 3 main networks and then PBS (public broadcasting) came along. I am somewhat used to Advertising. We would use that time to go to the toilet, or get a snack. Now we have many paid services that are ad free and some have so much content that we can get by for a nominal subscription. I still like over the air antenna TV even with the ads as some of the nostalgia shows are easily available there.
If I pay for something, I expect it to be ad free. And I am from US. Not all of us in US are willing to watch endless ads.
Lucky you, I have to pay, even though I don’t watch TV at all.
Had no idea:
https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/rundfunkbeitrag-germanys-tv-radio-tax-and-how-pay-it-or-legally-avoid
I am truly a Fortunate being.
A government that imposes/forces all citizens to subscribe to the Command channel, regardless. Something wrong there in the basic laws of the country.