Skip to main content

Netflix taps Microsoft to run its upcoming advertising-based plan

Netflix and Microsoft today announced that the two companies are teaming up for the streaming service’s upcoming advertising-based plan.

And, well, that’s it. The most important question for anyone not named Microsoft or Netflix is, of course, just how much that plan will cost. It’ll be “lower priced,” Netflix says, but not free. But we still don’t know the price. Suffice to say it’ll be less than $10 a month, however.

Stranger Things on Netflix.
Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

“It’s very early days and we have much to work through,” Netflix Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer Greg Peters said in a press release. “But our long term goal is clear. More choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers. We’re excited to work with Microsoft as we bring this new service to life.”

Recommended Videos

Netflix currently has three streaming plans. The “Basic” plan runs $10 a month and is only available in standard definition. The “Standard” plan ramps things up to high definition and theses in the ability to watch on two devices at once, all for about $16. And the “Premium” plan adds 4K resolution and four devices at once for $20 a month.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

See more

Also unknown is exactly what form the ads will take. Streaming services have gotten creative of late. Pre-roll ads are simple enough, wherein you watch ads before your content starts. Mid-roll ads also are possible given how much made-for-TV content Netflix has, with the ad breaks already built into the shows. Or there could be advertising when you pause a show. Or you also could imagine Netflix going the route of Roku, with display ads tucked in amongst all the other on-screen content.

“Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we work together to build a new ad-supported offering,” Peters wrote. “More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members.”

Netflix finally relented to the idea of an ad-based subscription plan after posting its first quarterly loss in subscribers for the first time in a long time in Q1, just a couple hundred thousand subscribers. The company predicted a loss of some 2 million subs for the second quarter, however, and it’ll release the actual numbers on July 19.

So for now, we wait and see just what Netflix has up its sleeves, and just how many more subscribers it can squeeze out of it.

Phil Nickinson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
How to get Netflix for free
Netflix login screen

Netflix does not offer free trials. That’s unfortunate news for those of us looking to test the waters with one of the world’s top streaming platforms. Fortunately, there are a couple of backdoor methods you can use to get Netflix for free.

Will Netflix ever bring back free trials? It’s hard to say, but riding the coattails of another family member’s subscription, or cashing in on an ISP promo are a few ways to stream Netflix movies and shows without forking over any dough. Let's take a crack at it, shall we?
How much does Netflix cost?

Read more
Netflix’s ad-supported tier will include ad-free bonus episodes in 2024
Netflix app icon on Apple TV.

It has now been a full year since Netflix shook things up by introducing a tier that includes advertising, available in a dozen countries for $7 a month. Now, just a couple weeks after the company’s third-quarter earnings report, Netflix is giving some details on how the ad-supported tier has worked out.

In a blog post penned by Netflix advertising president Amy Reinhard, the company says that it now has some 15 million global monthly active users on the ad-supported tier. The Q3 letter to shareholders noted that approximately 30% of new sign-ups were for the cheaper, ad-supported tier, up 70% quarter over quarter.

Read more
Fubo tweaks its plans again, and actually lowers price of one tier
FuboTV app icon on Apple TV.

It's pretty common to see streaming services increase prices every now and then. More rare is seeing prices go down. But that's exactly what's happened with one of the tiers on Fubo.

Fubo (it's no longer called FuboTV) is one of the smaller live streaming services in the U.S., with just over 1.1 million subscribers as of mid-2023. But it's also one of the only ones that offers more than one tier of service. And its most expensive tier has just been renamed, and has a new price to go with it.

Read more