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Netflix's business is an online version of their old business, which was a mail-in version of Blockbuster.

No ads were involved in take-home videos, that I recall, other than late attempts at unskippable promos by the studios who released the movies themselves (that was after I gave up renting videos).

I don't see any causal relationship at all.

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As I said in my second line, in the case of Netflix, I don't think this applies. Their business model has always been to charge users for content.

However when looking at the rise in the number of papers going behind a paywall like the NY times, there is an argument to be made that this is being driven by the fact it is no longer viable to run an ad supported business because Google and Facebook have control of too much of the market

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