Most Customers Would Stop Watching Netflix if it had Commercials

AlphaAtlas

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Netflix reportedly tested video ads for other series earlier this year, and those tests didn't go well. The company has no public plans to implement video ads anytime soon, and a recent survey conducted by the market research firm Audience Project seems to justify Netflix's reluctance. After asserting that Netflix is the leading streaming in the US and several European countries, the research firm claims that over half of Netflix's users would stop watching content if the streaming platform introduced commercials. In the U.S, 42% said they would still stop watching if a price drop accompanied the commercials. Thanks to KitGuru for spotting the survey.

When asked whether the Netflix users would stop watching content on Netflix if the company were to add commercials into its streaming service, more than half - and in some countries up to two thirds - confirm that they would do this. And even when presenting the Netflix users for a scenario where Netflix lowered the subscription price while introducing commercials, around half still confirm that it would make them stop watching content on Netflix... The study is based on more than 16.000 individual survey respondents across seven countries; The US, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
 
...and they had to do a STUDY to figure this out???

Someone paid too much to that firm.

stock holders are idiots though so you have to do stupid stuff like this to prove a point that their business model works.. plus it could also be used as a slap in cable broadcasters face to prove exactly why people are getting rid of cable TV. it's not just the price, it's also that we're paying out the ass while also having to watch commercials.

So sick of ads, can't even pump gas now without a commercial playing on the gas pump...

Yea I would probably leave netflix if it added commercials to shows.

completely agree.. if they ever added commercials i'd instantly cancel the service.
 
Scream into the void all you want, commercials and increased prices are coming as capitalism continues to attempt to draw blood from a stone.
 
People talk a mean game until it comes down to brass tacks. Netflix can do whatever they want to and I bet they lose a fraction of that.

I think you underestimate the power of being annoyed. Some people might quit in outrage, but a lot of them will follow their opinion by the path of least annoyance. If they have less annoying options, they will just go watch that instead. When they look at the bill and go... hmm, I'm not really watching netflix much. Then they cancel netflix. No righteous display of outrage. They just simply like something else better now.
 
I'm paying for it already. You don't need to shove your other content in my face over and over... What is the point?

Agreed.

However, I think Netflix needs to do a better job with their content recommendations. Ads are clearly not the way to due that, but I've found a few hidden gems on Netflix that a sane suggestion algorithm should've brought to my attention... There is some utility in promoting content within the service.
 
They would probably have better luck keeping no comercial pricing where it's at and offering a cheaper plan with commercials. Then current user aren't affected at all unless they actively choose the cheaper plan. Once everyone is settled into the new system they can hit users with a rate hike.
 
When Cable Television services first came out they didn't have commercials either. We see how that held up.

The real problem is once it becomes industry standard customers won't have a choice other than to stop consuming (which they won't do in most cases).

Edit: Removed Quote I misread.
 
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People talk a mean game until it comes down to brass tacks. Netflix can do whatever they want to and I bet they lose a fraction of that.

Unless there is a comparable competitor, I think you're right. People aren't just going to give up content due to a few commercials. If it's deal with it or give it all up, they'll deal with it. If there were a competitor that charged a similar amount or a little more with similar content, they'd jump ship.

They WANT the content. They'll deal with commercials if they have to. People will be pissed and some will cancel. But, most won't. I doubt it'd be anywhere close to 42%. Easily in the single digits.
 
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They WANT the content. They'll deal with commercials if they have to. People will be pissed and some will cancel. But, most won't. I doubt it'd be anywhere close to 42%. Easily in the single digits.

It will force me to finish setting up my Radarr/SickBeard setup for automated downloading of shows.
 
When Cable Television services first came out they didn't have commercials either. We see how that held up.

The real problem is once it becomes industry standard customers won't have a choice other than to stop consuming (which they won't do in most cases).

Edit: Removed Quote I misread.
They still have a choice. They can pirate the show and pay nothing and have all ads removed. Depending where you live you could also get the shows earlier then when they would of aired normally.
 
They still have a choice. They can pirate the show and pay nothing and have all ads removed. Depending where you live you could also get the shows earlier then when they would of aired normally.

I think Piracy is is a non issue to be honest. It's easy for us to say because we are [H] and all run our Plex boxes or equivalent but most of the population can hardly handle signing into their Netflix accounts lol.
 
Unless there is a comparable competitor, I think you're right. People aren't just going to give up content due to a few commercials. If it's deal with it or give it all up, they'll deal with it. If there were a competitor that charged a similar amount or a little more with similar content, they'd jump ship.

They WANT the content. They'll deal with commercials if they have to. People will be pissed and some will cancel. But, most won't. I doubt it'd be anywhere close to 42%. Easily in the single digits.

That's my take. What are you going to swap to? Hulu? YouTube Red? Cable? Disney?
Their only real competition is Amazon Prime and that's mainly just because Prime members already get that for free.
Some people will likely swap over to "alternate means" of getting Netflix content, but don't overestimate the technical ability of most of the population.
 
The whole premise for commercials is that with broadcast TV, there was originally no way to make people pay for content, so they were subsidized with commercials. You, the end user, don't have to "pay" for the content, but do have to put up with commercials.

If I am directly paying for content, I will not be watching commercials. That is why I do not, and plan to never subscribe to cable or satellite services. I pay an outrageously high fee for access, then have to watch more commercials than I get on broadcast? No. Not "no, thank you," but just plain NO!
 
The recommendation algorithm used to work fine, then they broke it because it wasn't doing what they wanted it to. Then they broke the rating system, next stop ads or forced trailers. These are the fixes they come up with to patch the mistake they keep making, creating expensive content that only a few are interested in watching.
 
We got Hulu for a $1 a month for a year special and I hardly watch it because of the commercials. I doubt we'll renew our subscription.
They have a commercial free option and the one with commercials is cheaper so yeah... I have the cheaper one with commercials but they don't run over 2 minutes long max which ain't so bad for us.
 
I can pirate any and all content that i pay for currently if i want to.

I choose to pay. It is literally a zero effort decision to pay nothing and get the content in a portable commercial free medium that I can keep forever.

It takes less effort for me to pirate content than to work and pay for it. Dont make my choices easy for me because I have zero moral quandries about not paying for it. Let them all go out of business and we end up without any big blockbuster movies and tv shows because everyone is just not paying. Why would I care? Entertainment existed before them, it'll exist after. It's demise will be their own doing because they aren't providing a product that the public wants and instead have used laws to try and force the public to consume what they want to provide. That's not how reality wants to work. And it will fail.
 
We got Hulu for a $1 a month for a year special and I hardly watch it because of the commercials. I doubt we'll renew our subscription.

I am currently on a 3 month free Hulu plan as well and it is so painful to be watching something and then you get stopped for 90+ seconds of ads all of which are the same exact ads you saw the last time it was paused. No way would I ever pay for their low tier of service but I don't know that I would pay Netflix more for no commercials when their new content is not as enticing as it once was.
 
They have a commercial free option and the one with commercials is cheaper so yeah... I have the cheaper one with commercials but they don't run over 2 minutes long max which ain't so bad for us.

i pay for the no commercials (top tier) option. You still get plenty of commercials on "live" content. Live content counts as anything current season.

On top of this, the volume of these commercials is _ALWAYS_ vastly louder than the actual show.
 
Agreed.

However, I think Netflix needs to do a better job with their content recommendations. Ads are clearly not the way to due that, but I've found a few hidden gems on Netflix that a sane suggestion algorithm should've brought to my attention... There is some utility in promoting content within the service.

This and they need to stop funding really bad content. I know the latter might be too subjective to control, but some of the things they create are really stupid and poorly done.

I owuld rather pay more per month if it meant keeping commercials off the air.
 
I'm saying it: I care far more about the content and user experience than price. If they throw commercials at me, I'll probably quit. I have tons of other streaming options for what's critical in my house. Paw Patrol. Elena. Sophia. Puppy Dog Pals. Mickey Roadster Racers.
 
Agreed.

However, I think Netflix needs to do a better job with their content recommendations. Ads are clearly not the way to due that, but I've found a few hidden gems on Netflix that a sane suggestion algorithm should've brought to my attention... There is some utility in promoting content within the service.

Their algorithm isn't that great. I watched a Netflix film and then on the Netflix originals section, it was the first one listed rather than something that I haven't seen.
 
As Lord Jim Sterling likes to say, they don't want just some of your money, they want ALL of it. :D
But it's paid for, Amazon is doing the same but even worse because they are slapping things like football adverts into the mix at the beginning of a Vanity Fair episode.

They might as well be doing the super troopers pull over prank. I cant subscribe more to amazon prime or netflix. showing me more of your own content serves ZERO purpose.
 
I'm paying for it already. You don't need to shove your other content in my face over and over... What is the point?
That is exactly what people said about cable service in its early days. Now look at it.
 
Have these advertisers done any recent research to see if commercials are even effective anymore?

I know I'll flip to my phone and look at cat memes before I sit through a full comercial, let alone block of commercials. I'd be willing to bet advertiser don't get nearly as much value out of commercials as they used to.

I would think uninterrupted product placement in content is far more effective. (like how everyone in any current tv show has a microsoft surface with logo in frame anytime they do something computer related)
 
And then the gas station owner gets sued for the ads not being ADA compliant because there were not closed captioned.

And not in Braille, or showing enough diversity, or showing a white person smiling while a black person is frowning. There's no end to it.

I also would cancel my Netflix subscription if the ads start showing. That really IS the single biggest draw i have to Netflix. I DONT want to see advertisements. (don't worry, Kyle, i disable ABP for [H] ) More importantly, i dont want my children bombarded with advertisements. They don't need to be groomed into addicted consumers.

I went almost 7 years without television (outside of the occasional DVD) and i have no problem going back. I do enjoy having netflix, don't get me wrong. But not enough to keep me from making good on my position.
 
No one wants commercials and hardly anyone wants to pay more. Recipe for disaster.

Everyone that has cable pays and has commercials. It's going to happen eventually with Netflix. When you think about how much some channels cost, people would have to pay hundreds per month to have them all without commercials.ESPN, with commercials, is like 6 or 8 bucks a month itself.

Certain content is just really expensive and they know not everyone will be happy with price increases to keep it ad free. The goal is to not please everyone, but to please more people than are not pleased.
 
And not in Braille, or showing enough diversity, or showing a white person smiling while a black person is frowning. There's no end to it.

I also would cancel my Netflix subscription if the ads start showing. That really IS the single biggest draw i have to Netflix. I DONT want to see advertisements. (don't worry, Kyle, i disable ABP for [H] ) More importantly, i dont want my children bombarded with advertisements. They don't need to be groomed into addicted consumers.

I went almost 7 years without television (outside of the occasional DVD) and i have no problem going back. I do enjoy having netflix, don't get me wrong. But not enough to keep me from making good on my position.

That wasn't snark, that was in my local paper last week.
 
Have these advertisers done any recent research to see if commercials are even effective anymore?

I know I'll flip to my phone and look at cat memes before I sit through a full comercial, let alone block of commercials. I'd be willing to bet advertiser don't get nearly as much value out of commercials as they used to.


I wonder this too. I read an article last week or so that claimed something like 60% of the internet traffic is fake. Click Farms and the like, in order to generate more revenue to the ad companies. So you have to wonder if these ads are actually bringing in any real business, or enough to sustain even the ad campaign
 
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