Canadian Netflix users will see a new membership option starting Tuesday that costs less but comes with a catch: commercial breaks inserted into their favourite shows.
After years of uninterrupted binge-watches, the world’s largest streaming service is making way for a word from its sponsors. And as inflation continues to pinch consumers, the proposal of a cheaper Netflix plan may sound enticing to some.Several free ad-supported streaming services will launch in Canada over the coming weeks, all of them built on a business model that taps into the country's multi-billion advertising industry to finance and acquire programming.
Around the same time, CBC introduces a revamped free streaming news channel that will be available on CBC Gem and multiple other streaming platforms. A flagship program hosted by Andrew Chang of "The National" will be the main attraction with advertisements will be interspersed throughout the day. As a trade-off for the savings, Netflix says subscribers will be presented with an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour played before and during their TV shows and films.
That's different than the United States where Peacock, Paramount Plus and HBO Max all offer less expensive ad tiers as a subscription option, while Crackle and Amazon's Freevee are among the major players in free, ad-supported platforms. He estimates a modest 20 per cent of Canadian Netflix subscribers will join the ad tier over the next 12 to 18 months.