Netflix to introduce ad-supported plan | Hacker News Reader

Netflix to introduce ad-supported plan

techcrunch.com

15 pointssahin8 comments

Ah, just like Cable.

Entice the service with a "no ads" pitch, get people hooked, then introduce the very ads that people were avoiding. Netflix is a little different in that they were somewhat pioneers of mass online video content (there were services for Hotels, but were commercial solutions), but still, it started without Ads and contrasted themselves against Hulu which had Ads.

Unlike cable, they have peoples viewing habits: you’ve been watching break up movies, can we recommend these self help books at Amazon and a match.com subscription?

Not at all. All streaming services are moving to add a cheaper "with ads" option. This is about adding customers who wouldn't buy from them anyway, not screwing their current customerbase.

I dunno. I don't like it. Advertising undermines many many things in a digital world.

Many say they would prefer paying $100 annually for an FB without algorithms and without advertising, same for Google. Obviously many people prefer the appearance of free. But that "free" is costing you more than $100 in value to advertisers.

I hate having things underwritten by advertising and gamification. It corrupts services to their core. As the saying goes, you are not the customer any more, the advertisers are. That's the utter corruption.

I agree with you. And I'd be upset if Netflix was forcing ads down my throat. But a lot of people prefer that trade, and it would be stupid of Netflix to ignore it.

Yo do realise that they'll increase the prices slowly so the price you pay for ad-free now will become ad-supported. You'll definitely be paying more than you are now to keep no ads.

That's possible. But even on a strictly short-term profit maximization kick, I don't think they raise prices that much. The premium for "ad free" has been settled by the market at about $5/mo for video streaming. They'll have to introduce their new plans at at least that below their current plan to get traction.

Once they have that $5 separation, it'll be hard to raise the prices out of sync with one another.

Netflix in 2016 on his "Long-Term View" blogpost:

> We don't offer pay-per-view or free ad-supported content. Those are fine business models that other firms do well. We are about flat-fee unlimited viewing commercial-free.[1]

The reality is that "free" ad-supported products still big businesses and Netflix can't resist to do it. When a company have a matured brand, reach millions of people and a place in the cultural zeitgeist, seems inevitable that the hunger for more power and fear of decline make this people surrender and do things that they rejected in the past.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20161122044937/https://ir.netfli...

In some sense the inevitable beginning of the end to what was once a novel idea.

Gotta make those numbers look better.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com