Netflix Negotiating With Google And Comcast To Bolster Ad-Supported Plans

Video streaming giant Netflix is in talks with ad-serving companies to help it with developing ad-supported plans that it has been mulling to roll out later this year.

Netflix is in the early stages of developing a strategy to boost revenue through ads. Image: Getty

Video streaming giant Netflix is in talks with ad-serving companies to help it with developing ad-supported plans that it has been mulling to roll out later this year. Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Alphabet's Google have emerged as top contenders to work with Netflix to create ad-supported plans, said a report by The Wall Street Journal.

This development comes as the streaming giant is in the early stages of developing a strategy to boost revenue through ads and it has explored a range of tie-ups in recent weeks. A deal with either Google or NBCUniversal would likely be exclusive, the WSJ report added.

The streaming giant is also negotiating with entertainment firms to put ads into shows that it does not create itself. Licensing movies and TV shows for both ad-free and ad-supported streaming will cost Netflix about 20 per cent more than for streaming without ads alone, according to a report by The Information.

To recall, Netflix for the first time in May had announced that it would be introducing cheaper ad-supported plans in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022. The company has told its employees that it intends to introduce an ad-supported plan by the end of this year and this comes quicker than what was previously indicated.

Netflix's announcement of introducing ad-supported tiers came along with minimising password sharing. It is likely that Netflix starts putting a ban on password sharing among its subscribers around the same time it rolls out ad-supported plans.

The company had hinted at the possible changes after registering a loss in subscribers earlier this year. The platform saw a loss in subscribers for the first time in a decade. It had cited factors such as sluggish economic growth, inflation and geopolitical events such as the Russia-Ukraine war for the loss of subscribers. The streaming giant had announced that it ended the first quarter of this year with 221.6 million subscribers and the APAC region, which includes India which added 1.09 million paid members in the region.