Netflix, once a pioneer of ad-free viewing that offered a break from traditional TV norms, is now contemplating launching free ad-supported versions of its service in markets like Europe and Asia, Bloomberg reported.
The plans to offer a free ad-supported tier, albeit in select markets, suggests that pivot towards monetizing user data, in other words — making users and not the extensive library of award-winning shows a product, might be well in the pipeline.
If they aren’t going to charge for access otherwise then I don’t think being ad supported is such a bad thing. Much more honest than subscription pricing and ads in my opinion.
yeah, imo it’s either ads or paid. not both. both is scummy
They will still be selling user data whether you opt for the ad supported tier or not, so get used to that.
If they haven’t been doing so for at least a decade, I’m sure their shareholders will want to know why not.
Obviously the majority of content is not going to be available. It will essentially b a Tubi clone or what Netflix streaming was when they first launched it.
I just wish they could bundle all the subscriptions into packages or bundles and I could watch the shows at pre-determined times.
Maybe they could add some kind of auto scrolling view that informs what is playing at those times? That’d be handy, sometimes I can’t find anything to watch.
I’d probably end up watching that more than I watch the shows.
They could bundle in my idea of having a telephone in your house, not a cell phone more like a land phone
Cool thing about this is they could assemble these bundles into parallel live streams we could simply flick between to find what we prefer to watch. If they run into a problem of people flicking away when ads run then just align the ads to run at the same time on each “channel” if I can call them that ?
Stop it. Executives don’t understand sarcasm and you’ve doomed us all!
It’s okay.
Executives got were they are by being smart and making good decisions, not by listening to idiots on the internet.
They could even provide an electronic box (for a nominal fee, or course) that shows me a menu of all the shows and movies that are available and what times they are going to play. That way I wouldn’t have to search through a bunch of streaming services. It could all just be in one place.
Why not sell a book that has that information at grocery stores?
This is step 86 in the plan. Step 87 is make people pay for the previously free service
Didn’t they already had a paid and with ads tier?
Yeah but now the roped in new suckers that didn’t know they need the product and the price is now 10 per month
Growth hacking. Shake loose more market share with the “FREE!!” version and then the frog boil
Life is stupid. What are we even DOING here???
Building shareholder value, duh.
That’s a broad leap no? Giants rise and fall. Look at betamax, BlockBuster, Kodak, etc
There’s always going to be something better out there, as long as you’re still looking and leaving the old post. Chin up!
…betamax as a giant? They entered a format war, and died in their first few years of existance.
The others I get. Kodak was around almost 100 years, blockbuster nearly 40, both at one time the dominant leaders of their industries. Both fell to failing to adapt to change.
But betamax? It came out around the same time as vhs, and vhs was cheaper.
Same with 8-tracks and cassettes.
I mean, my point still stands but if we want to talk about semantics - are you saying betamax wasn’t a giant?
Obviously they entered the vhs war and lost, but after that it was pretty much downhill for the rest of their company and products. They were a big name brand and crashed out by entering a war they ultimately lost. That’s all I’m tryin to get at
Getting stupider
Enshittification? ✔️
The advertising ouroboros continues to devour itself
Do it!
Ill cut subscription to free tier let adblockers do the rest. Profit.Let me know if it works and I’ll follow. I don’t need quality, I just need something for my kids to watch occasionally.
If that’s all you need, I’d probably just start using Tubi, Pluto, and Plex. Pluto and Plex have some good live channels (Tubi might also, haven’t checked). Tubi and Plex have a decent catalogue of on demand shows and movies. Of course if you already have Netflix, it might be hard if there’s a specific show they’re used to.
By quality I meant resolution, I don’t need 4k, but I do need specific shows my wife and kids like.
I have a NAS set up with some movies and whatnot, so I’ve talked to my wife about setting up a budget to purchase content we want and then cancelling our streaming services. So we’d be limited to what’s available on DVD/Blu-Ray, but most of what my wife and kids watch are still available there.
The cost isn’t the issue, I really hate ads and I’m worried ad-free tiers will go away (or become unreasonably expensive).
I look forward to when someone releases a box to record the screen or shows you want to watch on Netflix just in case the rights gets pulled before you get the chance to watch it. Added benefit is they can make it skip ads too. Gotta have a catchy name… like… NeVO for Netflix Video On(demand)
Tablo already exists
Was making a comparison to TiVO and old cable/satellite programming 😂
“Free ad-supported” makes you no different than a hundred other garbage-tier streaming services.
And in 2 years they’ll move to 3 tiers, free with ads, paid with slightly less ads and even more expensive than before but no ads…
And eventually they’ll just pull the no ads version altogether.
Just like cable!
Jokes on them - all of my content is both free and ad free. 🏴☠️🦜🏴☠️
Time to bring back Tivo
That’s the problem. They already wisened up and HDMI, the propietary standard they forced everyone to change to for HD+, has built-in DRM. Most smart TV have DRM built-in as well.
Cryptanalysis researchers demonstrated flaws in HDCP as early as 2001. In September 2010, an HDCP master key that allows for the generation of valid device keys was released to the public, rendering the key revocation feature of HDCP useless.[8][9] Intel has confirmed that the crack is real,[10] and believes the master key was reverse engineered rather than leaked.[11] In practical terms, the impact of the crack has been described as “the digital equivalent of pointing a video camera at the TV”, and of limited importance for consumers because the encryption of high-definition discs has been attacked directly, with the loss of interactive features like menus.[12] Intel threatened to sue anyone producing an unlicensed device.[11]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection
I’m aware of this. But no corporation will ever let anyone get even close to releasing a consumer product like TiVo used to be.
Then it can be an open source project like PiHole that runs on a raspberry pi and that only cool people know about
They would be ceased and desisted out of existence. There’s a reason no one on the scene right now discloses methods and streaming piracy is a closely guarded secret. I’m sure it is perfectly possible, as that is how most piracy occurs nowadays. But it is extremely technical and most likely risks exposing any person doing it wrong.
Well it would be something that is for, you know, research. Like the core technology exists in a GitHub repo for science and the public interest, but the master keys are just not included, and up for you to procure on your own with a “legitimate license.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Netflix, once a pioneer of ad-free viewing that offered a break from traditional TV norms, is now contemplating launching free ad-supported versions of its service in markets like Europe and Asia, Bloomberg reported.
Greg Peters, Netflix’s co-CEO, recently told The Verge that they view ad sales as “a new muscle” for the streaming giant to “build” and then apparently flex.
According to a recent Madison and Wall survey, cited by Bloomberg, Netflix currently ranks around ninth or tenth in the online video advertising space, all while lagging far behind not only YouTube, but also Disney and Paramount, and struggling to catch up with Amazon and Roku.
Maxine Gurevich of Horizon Media argued that as long as people find the service valuable and the ads are minimally intrusive — that is, highly relevant and engaging — they should not detract from the overall user experience.
For example, Netflix’s intention to show ads during the NFL’s Christmas games to all subscribers, including those in the ad-free tier, is a tad disconcerting.
Only time will tell what happens with Netflix’s subscription tiers, and whether we’ll see moderately priced ad-supported options alongside premium ad-free versions that will be generally out of reach for regular consumers.
The original article contains 589 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I won’t support any streaming service that has a sub+ad tier. Ads with no sub or sub no ads, anything else is incredibly greedy and the same as cable TV.
still gonna stick to torrents for my media netflix cause i wanna actually have control of them
