Netflix has no plans for ads right now, but don’t rule it out

Netflix says there are currently no plans to introduce a subscription that includes ads. However, Netflix’s chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann, isn’t ruling out its introduction either.

At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Neumann was asked if the company will change its long-standing stance on not introducing ads. Neumann responded with the response ‘never say never’, but he also immediately indicated that it is not something that is part of the current plans.

According to him, Netflix has no “religion” against advertising, but is in the process of expanding the current service for customers who want to watch movies and series without advertising, Reuters noted. Neumann said it’s “hard to ignore that others are doing it, but for now it doesn’t make sense to us.”

With the latter, he probably refers, among other things, to plans by Disney to come up with a cheaper subscription for Disney + in which advertisements are shown. The idea is that this will attract even more subscribers. The introduction will initially take place in the United States at the end of this year, followed by other unnamed countries next year.

Reuters writes that certain Wall Street analysts have urged Netflix to come up with a cheap subscription with advertising to increase sales. This wish is partly prompted by the slowing pace at which Netflix is ​​attracting new subscribers. Growth was disappointing in the last quarter of last year and Netflix expects to welcome 2.5 million new customers for the current quarter. That figure would be a 37 percent drop from the first quarter of 2021.