Netflix ad support may arrive by year-end
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Netflix's (NASDAQ:NFLX) move into the world of ad-supported streaming video may be arriving before 2023.
The world learned Netflix was likely moving toward an ad-supported service tier during the company's last earnings conference call, when co-CEO Reed Hastings said it would try to "figure it out over the next year or two."
Now the company tells employees that it's looking to roll out advertising in the final quarter of 2022, The New York Times reports. And that would coincide with the company's new efforts to crack down on password sharing at the same time.
"Yes, it's fast and ambitious and it will require some trade-offs," a note to staffers says, according to the report. But the note points out that rivals like HBO (WBD) and Hulu (DIS) (CMCSA) have been able to maintain their "strong" brands while offering ad-supported versions.
The new potential revenue stream should arrive along with another one from monetizing password sharing. Households sharing their passwords with others isn't new, Hastings said, and "when we were growing fast it wasn't a high priority to work on. And now we're working super hard on it."
Netflix recently absorbed the blow of a shareholder lawsuit related to its disclosures around Q1's uncommon subscriber decline.