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from the we-interrupt-this-binge-to-bring-you-another-binge dept.
Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
The news emerged via user reports, particularly on the primary Netflix Reddit community, in which users claimed that ads for entirely different series would play between episodes of a given show's binging. One initial claim said that "unskippable" ads for the AMC series Better Call Saul appeared between episodes of Rick & Morty and that this ad appeared while using Netflix's smart TV app on an LG set in the UK. Replies to that thread included an allegation that a video ad for I Am A Killer (a Netflix-produced true-crime series) appeared between episodes of the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.
An American Netflix user offered more details for exactly how the ads appear:
After the episode ended, I got a screen saying "More Shameless up next... " then the title card slid off screen, and it continued with, "but first check out Insatiable" [a Netflix-exclusive series] and started playing the trailer.
In a statement given to Ars Technica, Netflix described the change as follows: "We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster." The reasoning, Netflix's statement says, comes from its last controversial decision: to add auto-playing videos, complete with unmuteable audio, while browsing through Netflix content.
Netflix offered a major rebuttal to at least one Reddit claim, pointing out that the ads for Netflix content are entirely skippable.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 20 2018, @05:19PM
That was yesterday when they were trying to get buy-in and adoption.
This is today when they absolutely must have to make more this quarter than the last quarter and even plateaued income levels are in no way acceptable because then someone else will eat their lunch. Those little blips translate to less users cancelling their service. "But the ads are very short and just for other Netflix programs! They help you find something else you want to watch!"
Today it's ads for other Netflix services. Tomorrow, when they have people gentled to that and absolutely need more money to account for inflation and mollify the shareholders it'll be very short ads for other products. But they're shorter than YouTube (which has now begun running two ads three or four times during a 15 minute video,) just at the end, and way less than cable or broadcast. "We're better than they are, so stay with us!"
The only thing I'm trying to figure out is if this strategy is genuinely new or simply accelerated from the way it always has been. Not sure.
[And I realize you knew the above.... just what passed through my brain when I read your comment.]
This sig for rent.