Bye bye basic
Earlier Wednesday, Netflix removed its $9.99 per month ad-free Basic tier for new subscribers in the U.S. and the U.K., a month after new Canadian subscribers lost the offering.
The move is an attempt to push new subscribers to its advertising tier, coming in at $6.99 per month.
At its first upfronts event in May, Netflix told buyers it had nearly 5 million monthly active users on the tier globally. Now, Netflix said membership has nearly doubled since the first quarter.
However, the company said it’s still a “small membership base,” and current ad revenue is not material for Netflix.
“Building an ads business from scratch isn’t easy, and we have lots of hard work ahead, but we’re confident that over time we can develop advertising into a multibillion dollar incremental revenue stream,” the most recent earnings letter said.
Evolving Top 10
Last month, Netflix shifted the way it reports its weekly engagement data in its Top 10 list, opting to rank titles instead by the number of views over total hours viewed (though that information is still provided).
“We think this new approach is more intuitive, and it also adjusts for run time (i.e., longer films or series don’t get an inherent advantage),” the company said.
For the second quarter, Netflix pointed to series such as Beef, Season 4 of Love is Blind and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story as titles that saw high levels of engagement, as well as films like Murder Mystery 2 and The Mother.
READ SOURCE
