Netflix is making some major moves for the future, many of which are going to have major impacts on how customers partake in the mega streamer’s services. In April, the company announced that it's going to add commercials as part of a subscription plan that’ll be cheaper than what’s offered now. Details on the situation have been scarce since then, but the company has now provided a major update on how it’s proceeding with the plan. And as it turns out, this massive business move will see the entertainment entity partner with another monolithic corporation.
Netflix is officially partnering with Microsoft as it moves ahead with its ad-supported subscription plan. The news was confirmed by the streamer’s COO, Greg Peters, who explained that the technology company will make a firm partner because of its ability to support advertising needs. Though the exec also stressed that the relationship between the two corporations is relatively new, they’re both on one accord when it comes to what they want.
Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft’s President of Web Experiences, also spoke out on the big news. While he expressed enthusiasm over the new corporate relationship, he also shed a bit of light on what the public can expect when everything is up and running:
At launch, consumers will have more options to access Netflix’s award-winning content. Marketers looking to Microsoft for their advertising needs will have access to the Netflix audience and premium connected TV inventory. All ads served on Netflix will be exclusively available through the Microsoft platform. Today’s announcement also endorses Microsoft’s approach to privacy, which is built on protecting customers’ information.
For years, Netflix was against using ads, as company bigwigs didn’t seem to think that such an approach would be viable for the organization’s business model. CEO Reed Hastings also explained back in 2020 that the streamer was uninterested in having to keep track of the copious amounts of user data that would be necessary to populate ad boxes. When announcing the upcoming subscription plan earlier this year, Greg Peters reiterated his desire not to rely on ads but also stated that he and his colleagues want to provide consumers with options that best fit their needs.
The media corporation is set to join a few other streamers that have already taken this approach. HBO Max currently offers ads with a subscription tier, and Hulu uses commercials as well. The latter service’s sister platform, Disney+, has yet to utilize ads. The House of Mouse’s CEO, Bob Chapek, addressed this last fall and, though he didn’t rule anything out for the future, he seems to be pleased with how things are running at the moment.
The idea of two powerful entities like these teaming up does give one pause. But should their efforts be successful, they could provide another viable way for prospective streamers to gain access to the streaming platform’s content at a generally reasonable price. I, like so many others, will be watching to see how this all shakes out.
Those who want to take advantage of the plan will want to make sure that they have a Netflix subscription handy.
