Netflix, once a pioneer of ad-free viewing that offered a break from traditional TV norms, is now contemplating launching free ad-supported versions of its service in markets like Europe and Asia, Bloomberg reported.

The plans to offer a free ad-supported tier, albeit in select markets, suggests that pivot towards monetizing user data, in other words — making users and not the extensive library of award-winning shows a product, might be well in the pipeline.

  • TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    For me, it depends on what they’re promoting. If it’s some crappy mobile game or crypto, I’m out. But I’m fine with the usual shit like energy drinks or VPNs. Like, those things usually have a serious business behind them, even if they might be useless for the vast majority of viewers.

    • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yep. I don’t hate youtubers for doing ads. Everyone needs to make money. Just skip the ads.

      Except for Ryan George because he actually makes his funny as fuck.

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If Netflix ads were just energy drinks and VPN then you’re cool with them adding these tiers?

      Honest to god question. How many hours a day are you OK being spent on being sold something. What is your ratio of content to ads.

      That’s your time by the way. My full belief is anyone trying to sell me anything needs to pay me. Not a content creator. That’s my time I barely have any of it to give so when 1 hr out of 3 hrs I got to relax is spent being sold shit I’m pretty pissed.

      And it isn’t like I can. Just opt to enjoy ad free content creators. They no longer exist because the ones that monetized it. That’s the part I hate most.

      • TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        It’s a little different with Netflix, because of what they started out as. With Youtube, I expected to be advertised to from the beginning, you know? I pay for Youtube Premium and use Sponsor Block to support the creators I watch while having a mostly ad free experience. Also, I just trust most of the creators that I watch to have my best interest in mind in terms of what they advertise.

        But for Netflix, their whole thing from the beginning was that they were better TV. That’s how they sold it to me. Now they’re slowly losing their point. So I’d definitely not be alright with it if they started showing me ads on top of my subscription fee. Same with Prime Video, because I know they’re experimenting with that.

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          That’s exactly what I’m saying with it too. All of this started out as a place to share and collaborate and to reject the stuff that made all other industries rotten.

          We had something amazing and we let it rot on our watch and that’s something we can’t ever fix but I don’t think we should forget how badly we fucked up. And how we fucked up should be remembered in case we ever get any new frontier.

          YouTube never had ads. We all just shared videos. It was a big deal every time they brought it in. Pewdie pi made a fortune and it was all over from there.

          Ill never support any of these content creators or buy any subscriptions. None of this should have been monetized. Advertising is out of control and it was already bad before the internet. Some of us are experiencing an ad 24/7 a day now.