Netflix Adding Commercials Has Viewers Heated

Netflix is gearing up to jump on the ad-supported bandwagon, and not everyone is here for it. After years of resisting advertisements on its streaming service, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said Tuesday that the company is "open" to adding lower-priced, ad-support plans, something Hastings said Netflix would be "trying to figure out over the next year or two."

Although Hastings acknowledged that he has "been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription," he said adding advertisements to the streaming platform is "one way to increase the price spread." Hastings explained that "allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant get what they want makes a lot of sense." He said that Netflix is "quite open o offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice," however, he did not provide any details on what an ad-supported plan would look like, including the price. Netflix's cheapest subscription tier, the basic plan, costs $9.99 per month and does not include ads.

News that ads could soon be a part of the Netflix viewing experience didn't settle well with everyone, with some people threatening to cancel their Netflix subscriptions if the streamer opts into ads. While some welcomed the idea of a lower-cost subscription option, many wondered why Netflix, inarguably one of the largest streaming companies, couldn't simply offer an ad-free tier at a lower price than its current three subscription tiers. Keep scrolling to see what people had to say about the news.