Now, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos on Thursday has confirmed during an interview at the Cannes Lions advertising festival about the company’s plan to add a new ad-supported tier to its subscription service in the near future to attract more customers, reports The Hollywood Reporter .
“We’ve left a big customer segment off the table, which is people who say: ‘Hey, Netflix is too expensive for me and I don’t mind advertising,’” Sarandos told The Hollywood Reporter.
“We [are] adding an ad tier; we’re not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say, ‘Hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads.’”
The upcoming subscription plan is basically aimed at people who don’t mind ads and want an affordable subscription model. This plan also does not affect those who are on a premium subscription tier, as the content will be continued to streamed without ads.
Besides confirming the ad-supported tier, Sarandos also revealed that Netflix is currently in talks with potential ad-sales partners for the new subscription tier.
The Netflix executive did not reveal when it plans to bring ad-supported Netflix plan to its platform. At present, the basic Netflix subscription costs $9.99 per month, while the no-ads subscription cost between $9.99 and $19.99.
Sarandos said that he believes Netflix could return to growth on its own with the changes planned. “We have plenty of scale and profitability and free cash flow to continue to grow this business,” he said, suggesting that there’s “still a lot of room to grow.”
