Netflix’ Considered Free Plan Might Target European And Asian Markets Primarily
When it comes to household names in the video-on-demand market, there’s no name that has more power than Netflix. However, with price increases and major changes to password-sharing policies, the service has had a rough time recently. An ad-supported tier was introduced a few years back to allow people to subscribe to Netflix for even cheaper. However, that might not be enough, and the company might be planning to introduce a new plan that’s 100% free.
This is based on a report published by Bloomberg. Supposedly, this free tier will only be accessible to people in select markets, with a focus on Europe and Asia. The company aims to increase its user base in regions where it has been unable to maximize its numbers for one reason or the other. Germany and Japan are thought of being two major options.
This move will also help the streaming platform become more of a player in the advertising market, as, despite its place in the market, it is far from being a huge player when it comes to selling video ads. Unsurprisingly, YouTube is first in this category, and Netflix is in a very far 10th spot. A free tier would get more customers through the door and more ads sold, so perhaps that might help the platform quite significantly.
Netflix Has Messed Around With A Free Plan Once, But Only In One Market, And It Didn’t Even Last
As far as most people know, Netflix has never offered a free plan the way that music subscription services like Spotify have. However, that’s not entirely the case, as the company has toyed with a free plan on one occasion before, and that was in Kenya in 2021. What made it even more interesting was the fact that this was an ad-free tier too.
The catch though, was the fact that this free tier did not provide access to the entire catalog of content that Netflix had to offer at the time. However, it was meant to provide just enough to entice people who were unfamiliar with the platform to eventually upgrade to a full-blown plan.
However, by 2023, the company announced that it was going to be putting an end to that free plan. Maybe at that point, it had served its purpose. Who knows, maybe the free ad-supported plan will also provide only a limited catalog, but for now, we can only speculate.
