Netflix with advertising? Like a tune from YouTube…

To counter the sharing of accounts between friends, but also to stop the astronomical loss of subscribers, netflix has decided to launch a cheaper offer for the end of the year, or even the first quarter of 2023, the advantageous price of which will be offset by the display of advertisements. Currently, Netflix offers three different packages: Essential Netflix at 8.99 euros per month; Standard Netflix at 13.49 euros per month; Premium Netflix at 17.99 per month. Common point to all these packages: they are available without commitment. You can therefore unsubscribe whenever you want.

The cheaper offer, and therefore necessarily at less than 8.99 euros per month, will therefore have the particularity of displaying advertising spots. Accustomed to watching YouTube with many advertisements, the youngest subscribers could be tempted by this offer. Nevertheless, Bloomberg reports that this new package will be significantly less interesting in terms of functions.

Unable to use Netflix offline

Thus, the developer Steve Moser discovered in the source code of the’application Netflix for iOS that “ downloads are available on all plans except Netflix with advertising “. Clearly, subscribers to this offer will not be able to take advantage of netflix offline, after downloading the series, documentaries or films that interest them. However, it is one of the most interesting functions, especially when it comes to watching Netflix in places where connections are complicated or even impossible. We think of public transport or on the plane.

This same developer has also discovered that it will be impossible, like on YouTube, to skip advertisements and that it will be impossible to access player functions during these same advertisements. Clearly, unless you turn your head, it is impossible not to watch the advertisements. Advertisements which will also be targeted, and Bloomberg explains that a configuration step will be necessary.

Less expensive, less functions

If these restrictions are confirmed, they should be very unpopular, especially since it is also rumored that the offer with advertising will offer less content. Unless this offer is ultimately free, and therefore fully paid for by advertising, it is hard to see who could turn to a package, certainly less expensive, but whose services are greatly degraded.

With more than a million fewer subscribers in the first quarter in North America, which is its main market, Netflix is ​​multiplying the avenues to relaunch itself in the face of increasingly tough competition. Thus, the firm also plans to modify the rate at which its most popular series are broadcast. Rather than posting an entire season, the platform could opt for a more “televisual” rhythm, in dribs and drabs. The goal is to prevent subscribers from watching a series in one or two evenings and then unsubscribing. Another track: sharing billing passwords between friends. It is already being tested in a few countries.