Advertising is coming to Netflix

Netflix will launch its new subscription with advertising in 12 countries in November, in an effort to boost subscriber growth after losing hundreds of thousands worldwide in the first two quarters of the year.

The cheapest subscription will cost $5.99 per month in Canada and will feature 15-30 second ads, played at the beginning and middle of programs.

Basic ad-free plans remain at their current price of $9.99 per month.

“We strongly believe that a lower consumer price, along with strong ad monetization, will allow us to grow our subscriber base and over time generate significant incremental revenue,” said Greg Peters, Managing Director. operations, during a press conference.

The streaming giant is thus cutting the rug out from under Disney+, which will launch its own offer with advertising in December, for $7.99 per month. The basic subscription goes to 11.99 dollars.

In the first quarter of 2022, Netflix had lost 200,000 subscribers worldwide compared to the end of 2021. The news had plunged its stock price by 25%. Then, from March to June, 970,000 subscribers left the platform.

The pioneer of the sector announced in April its intention to offer a cheaper subscription formula, but with advertising, after years of refusing this less prestigious solution.

He teamed up with Microsoft to implement this new system. In concrete terms, users who have chosen these new offers will see an average of 4 to 5 minutes of advertising per hour.

Children’s programs will initially not be affected and for some recent films, the ads will be longer, but shown only at the very beginning.

In terms of targeting, advertisers will be able to choose countries and genre (comedy, action, documentary, etc.) and exclude certain characteristics (violence, nudity, etc.) according to the predominant model on traditional television.

Netflix will collect information such as the gender and age of its users and does not rule out doing so-called behavioral advertising targeting later, that is to say personalized according to individual preferences, as on the internet.