Netflix is changing its platform: between the arrival ofBasic subscription with advertising and interest in the cloud gaming, lots of news are coming. How are you cchanging the face of Netflix? Especially considering that, even without any of these new features, the streaming giant has started to grow again.
Netflix changes face, between gaming and advertising
We gave the first official news just a few days ago: the November 3 will also arrive in Italy the new subscription to Netflix Base with advertising. For those who are already subscribers with the Basic, Standard and Premium plans, no fear: this new plan does not raise the price of that of the others.
Instead, if you want to save something you can choose this new version that cit costs only 5.49 euros. There are some restrictions: reproduction solo in HD a 720p and no ability to download content. But above all, there will be 4-5 minutes of commercial breaks every hour of streaming, with 15-30 second commercial both before and during playback.
According to a recent analysis, the 68% of Italians say they are willing to put up with advertising to pay less (or even access the streaming for free). But the real test of the market will come from November 3: only with subscriptions will we be able to understand if this is really a winning move for Netflix.
Più gaming in streaming
The other great news of the last few hours is not official, but instead comes from what he said Mike Green from Netflix to Protocol in an interview. The streaming giant’s VP of game development said Netflix is going “Seriously considering” the hypothesis of a cloud gaming service.
For the moment the platform has only highlighted a few mobile titles: at the moment offers 35 in all. But they are all playable from the smartphone, while the new idea is that they are usable on any device that has a Netflix app.
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Judging by the statements, it doesn’t seem like the idea is to compete with services like Xbox Cloud Gaming o GeForce NOW. But to offer in its platform one more chance for ‘casual’ players, who would not have a separate subscription but would like to play from time to time.
At the moment, however, this remains only a hypothesis. But it could give an idea of a Netflix of tomorrow, with ads in the stream but different types of content on the platform: movies, series, games, VR experiences and maybe even music. A multimedia hub in all. Which at the moment, however, remains only a speculation.
The effort to increase subscribers
Both the ad-supported subscription and the gaming possibilities give Netflix the ability to increase the number of subscribersi: the real goal behind all the choices of the streaming giant. And to be honest, the results came even before these innovations could be implemented: in the last quarter Netflix recorded 2.41 million more users.
But the company cannot think one quarter at a time. He needs to have long-term plans for increase il number of subscriptions constantly. And it appears that one of the ways he intends to do this is by blocking account sharing.
It recently announced measures such as the transfer of the profile which many commentators think is good for make it easier to open a new account. When Netflix will prevent you from sharing it. So while advertising is in the future of Netflix and cloud gaming may be, sharing accounts with family and friends will likely be a thing of the past.