Netflix will launch ads first in more mature markets

New Delhi, July 20 (IANS): Netflix has confirmed it is renegotiating deals to put ads on its platform and will launch first in countries that have more mature advertising markets.

Reed Hastings, Co-CEO of Netflix, said that while they lost about one million users instead of two million, the excitement is tempered by the less bad results.

“But looking forward, streaming is working everywhere. Everyone is pouring in. It’s definitely the end of linear TV over the next five, 10 years, so I am very bullish on streaming. And then our core drivers are just continuing to improve,” he told analysts after the company’s earnings call late on Tuesday.

Greg Peters, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, said that once they feel more confident in the ad monetization, “then we’ll sort of explore the next tiers of countries over time. So that’s a dimension of growth”.

“But I would say the initial response that we’re getting from a brand and advertiser perspective is quite strong. This (ads) is going to start small relative to our total revenue mix, but we think we can grow it to be substantial over a period of time,” Peters noted.

Hit by a dwindling user base, streaming giant Netflix has partnered Satya Nadella-run Microsoft for its new ad-supported subscription plan that the company plans to launch in early 2023.

Spence Neumann, Chief Financial Officer of Netflix, said that they have talked about initiatives like “paid sharing as well as advertising as ways to better monetise our viewing and grow members.”

“We believe we can do this both in a revenue-accretive way as well as a profit accretive way. As we roll out a solution for paid sharing that probably has a more near-term impact once we get to a solution that works, and there’s not a lot of incremental expense to that,” he explained.

Netflix has announced that it is testing a new way to undertake password sharing in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.

The platform launched an “add extra member” feature in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru and now it is testing the feature in other countries.