Netflix says it’s ‘actively’ working on an ad-supported subscription model

Netflix is ​​”actively” working on building its cheaper, ad-supported deal, the company’s French team said on Tuesday, but added there was no clear timeline.

It was revealed last month that the streaming platform plans to introduce a new, cheaper subscription model by the end of the year that will break its advertising taboo.

This leak to The New York Times followed news that Netflix had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year, its first drop in a decade.

“We don’t have a precise timetable yet,” Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce, communications manager for Netflix France, told AFP.

“We are actively working on it. It is a priority, this idea of ​​giving more options to subscribers in a context of high inflation,” she added.

Bloomberg reported over the weekend that Netflix has yet to appoint an advertising executive or assemble a sales team.

The Wall Street Journal said Netflix is ​​actively seeking partnerships with Google and Comcast to deliver ads.

There are also tricky questions about where to place the ads.

Should they come only at the start of programming? Or will their teams have to sift through countless hours of content to find suitable moments for a commercial break in shows like “Stranger Things” that were never created with commercials in mind?

“For now, nothing is decided,” said Dauba-Pantanacce.

In its bid to make more money, Netflix is ​​also looking to crack down on users who share their passwords with others.

Despite the loss of subscribers that caused its share price to plummet, Netflix remains by far the most popular streaming service in the world with 222 million subscribers.

But they’re shared with about 100 million other households that don’t pay for the service.