Netflix’s internal discussions for its upcoming partially ad-supported tier have honed in on a price point of around $7-$9 a month, according to Bloomberg.
That‘s roughly half the price of Netflix‘s most popular tier, the $15.49-a-month plan that allows HD streaming and two simultaneous viewers.
Bloomberg also reported that Netflix is pondering around 4 minutes of commercials per programming hour, putting the rolls in front of, and in the middle of, the show.
Further, the ad-supported plan could start rolling out into certain regions of the U.S. as early as this year, Bloomberg added. Netflix had earlier pointed to a mid-2023 debut for its ad-supported tier.
Netflix released a statement calling this new information “speculation.”
Certainly, the evolution of the service — first announced in late April amid Netflix's epically downer first-quarter earnings report — has been the most closely watched item in the video business.
Netflix is trying to reignite customer and revenue growth in what has suddenly become a price-sensitive global market for subscription-based streaming services.
Rival Disney is in the process of developing its own ad-supported iteration of Disney Plus.
A price of $9 or less would undercut HBO, which last year started offering an ad-supported iteration of HBO Max (regularly $14.99 a month) for $9.99 a month. ■
