Streaming giant Netflix has reportedly told employees that the company will try to release a lower-priced, ad-supported subscription tier by the end of 2022.
According to the New York Times, a recent note to employees from company leadership said Netflix is targeting the last three months of the year to try and introduce the new tier for subscribers.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement last month, "Those who follow Netflix know I've been against the complexity of advertising and [am] a big fan of the simplicity of subscription," he said. "But as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice, and allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant get what they want makes a lot of sense."
Netflix previously announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of the year. A recent note to employees about the launch of the ad-supported tier noted the ambitious timeline saying, “Yes, it’s fast and ambitious and it will require some trade-offs.”
Netflix's most popular subscription tier is ad-free and costs $15.49 per month. HBO Max offers a commercial-free streaming service at $15 per month.
