Netflix Plans To Introduce Ads By 2022-end

(RTTNews) - Video-streaming platform Netflix Inc. (NFLX) said on Tuesday in a company note sent to its employees that it may introduce its lower-priced ad-supported tier by the end of this year, according to a report in The New York Times. The timeline to implement the ad tier has been brought forward, said the note.

The company notified its' employees that the ad tier system would be in place during the last three months of the year, as per the sources. The company was also going to take action on the issue of password sharing among its subscriber base during the same three-month period.

The decision by Netflix follows the news released along with its first-earnings report that, for the first time in 10 years, the video-streaming platform, lost 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of the year. The company expects to lose two million more in the upcoming months.

Ever since the subscriber announcement has been made, the company's share price has dropped significantly, removing nearly around $70 billion in the company's market capitalization.

Reed Hastings, Netflix's co-chief executive, told investors that the company would examine the possibility of introducing an advertising-supported platform and that it would try to "figure it out over the next year or two." The latest note reveals that the project has been fast forwarded.

At present, Netflix offers different payment tiers and its most popular plan costs $15.49 a month. The new ad-supported tier will be costing less. Other streaming services have also come out with similar plans. At HBO Max, streaming without commercials costs $15 a month, while streaming with advertisements costs $10 per month.

According to The New York Times, Netflix executives said that the ad-supported tier would be introduced "in tandem with our broader plans to charge for sharing."