Netflix may have promised, once upon a time, that it would never show its users ads. But that was before money became an issue. Now, Microsoft is also involved in the whole process, making what was once speculation a complete certainty.
Netflix and Microsoft have joined forces. They will provide subscribers (and potential subscribers) with “a new lower priced ad-supported subscription plan”. That’s… a good thing, right?
Microsoft goes hard
It wasn’t that long ago that we heard that Netflix was looking for new marketing partners. Microsoft is officially the new favoured entity, beating out America’s Comcast (thankfully) and Google. As a result, the company will be Netflix’s new global advertising technology and sales partner.
That means that M$ will both sell and serve the ads you’ll see on Netflix. Additionally, Microsoft brings “…the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members” to the table. At least, in Netflix’s opinion.
Greg Peters, CEO of Netflix, reckons that the deal will serve both users and advertisers. He said that the new Microsoft partnership offers “[m]ore choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers.” But then, he would say that. Especially the bit about advertisers.
Netflix isn’t alone in using ads to reach more subscribers. Disney+ is also working on exactly that. Even better, we already know exactly how ads will work on the platform when they launch. And they will launch. Because more money, and late-stage capitalism.