New Delhi: Days after Netflix announced lodging a loss in subscribers for the first time in a decade and that it was mulling to introduce advertisements, its decision is being questioned by the advertising community. There are limited opportunities in ads as advertisers do not introduce lengthy commercials as they do not want to upset viewers and usually fix ads to a few minutes in an hour, says a report by news agency Bloomberg. Netflix's decision to bring ads comes despite one of its CEO's Reed Hastings had said several years ago that advertisements will never make it to the platform.
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However, Netflix registered a loss in subscribers in the first quarter of this year post which its CFO Spencer Neumann had said: "never say never".
With the pandemic-induced surge of subscriptions showing signs of waning, major media and tech streaming companies are beginning to get bullish on advertising. “I thought, there’s no way it’s going to happen,” said Brian Wieser, Global President of Business Intelligence at GroupM, a WPP Plc company.
Earlier last month, Netflix had said it may bring changes that include low-cost plans with advertisements and minimising password sharing. The streaming giant had said that while announcing that it ended the first quarter of this year with 221.6 million subscribers and the APAC region, which includes India, added 1.09 million paid members in the region.
"Those who have followed Netflix know that I have been against the complexity of advertising, and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription," company co-CEO Reed Hastings had said during an earnings conference call.