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Didn’t cable have a similar business model. Charge + Ads. They’ve probably modelled out the amount they would $ gain vs customer loss from adding ads.

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Does cable have an ad free tier? This for me is the advantage Netflix has. Tempt people in with a cheap (or even free) ad supported tier and then offer the chance to upgrade to an ad free experience. Similar to YouTube Premium.

HBO and Showtime are the only “ad-free cable” that come to mind. Hulu has an ad-free tier but it’s really only a mostly ad-free tier.

> Didn’t cable have a similar business model. Charge + Ads.

Still does. Both OG cable and the cable-for-cordcutters streaming TV offerings like Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, etc. (even if the latter doesn't happen to sell their own ads, they are still charging for access to ad-loaded streams.)

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