The streaming giant recently announced it was exploring cheaper plans.
The future ad-supported tier of Netflix has a partner. The business declared on Wednesday that it would collaborate with Microsoft on the project. Microsoft said that it would lend its technological and sales experience to Netflix in a blog post.
The Wall Street Journal mentioned Google and Comcast as two of the leading prospects to assist Netflix in developing an ad-supported tier as recently as last month. Netflix announced on Wednesday that it had chosen Microsoft due to the latter’s “proven capacity” to service its users. According to Netflix Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters, “Microsoft offered the ability to evolve over time on both the technological and sales side, as well as solid privacy protections for our subscribers.” The absence of a Microsoft-run alternative streaming service is not highlighted.
Netflix co-CEO Reed Hasting first revealed the company was exploring cheaper plans this past April. The admission came after Netflix announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. At the time, Hastings said the company planned to finalize the details of its plans “over the next year or two.” Netflix is scheduled to announce its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday. According to CNBC, the company recently warned Wall Street it may have lost as many as two million subscribers over the past three months.