Netflix intends to launch the ad-supported service early next year.
According to code found inside the company’s iPhone app, Netflix does not intend to allow users of its new ad-supported tier to download shows and movies to their devices for offline viewing, removing a feature that customers enjoy on its regular service.
The move indicates that Netflix is doing everything it can to differentiate the upcoming service from its current offerings. The streaming behemoth, which has long avoided advertising, intends to launch the ad-supported service early next year. However, hints about the new service can already be found in code hidden within the iPhone app.
“Downloads available on all plans except Netflix with ads,” according to text in the app discovered and shared with Bloomberg News by developer Steve Moser. The code also implies that users will be unable to skip ads, which is a common practice in the streaming world, and that playback controls will be unavailable during ad breaks.
Netflix has refused to comment. Given that the service’s launch is still several months away, it’s likely that the company’s plans aren’t finalized and that its approach may change.
Nonetheless, early indications suggest that Netflix is strictly limiting the frills on the ad-supported service. Users can download content for viewing in places without reliable internet access, such as airplanes, with its regular plans. The lack of that option may assist Netflix in upselling users to higher-end tiers after hooking them on the ad-supported version. The company, based in Los Gatos, California, has already stated that it will not offer all of its content on the ad tier.
Netflix is losing customers and is up against Walt Disney, Amazon, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max. In the most recent quarter, it lost 1.3 million customers in the United States and Canada, its largest market.
Nonetheless, early indications suggest that Netflix is strictly limiting the frills on the ad-supported service. Users can download content for viewing in places without reliable internet access, such as airplanes, with its regular plans. The lack of that option may assist Netflix in upselling users to higher-end tiers after hooking them on the ad-supported version. The company, based in Los Gatos, California, has already stated that it will not offer all of its content on the ad tier.
Netflix is losing customers and is up against Walt Disney, Amazon, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max. In the most recent quarter, it lost 1.3 million customers in the United States and Canada, its largest market.
