Netflix Fires 4% Workforce To Cut Costs: 300 Employees Terminated, Ad-Supported Plans Coming Soon?

The American subscription streaming service and production company, Netflix Inc is in talks with several companies for advertising partnerships, said the co-CEO Ted Sarandos on Thursday.

Netflix With Advertise

It appears that the streaming titan looks to plug slowing subscriber growth by rolling out a cheaper plan with ads.

Earlier this week, Media reports said that the streaming service was in discussions with Alphabet Inc’s Google and Comcast Corp’s NBC Universal for potential marketing tie-ups.

Briefing the same, Sarandos said, “We’re talking to all of them right now,” at the Cannes Lions conference.

So far, Alphabet and Comcast did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Why Would This Happen?

Netflix has witnessed reducing subscribers for the first time in a decade. 

Further, projecting a 2 million decline in the upcoming quarter.

In April, Netflix said that it was seriously looking at advertising.

Sarandos Added, “We’re not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say ‘hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads’,” at Cannes Lions.

What About Rivals?

The titan streamer’s most formidable challenger,  Walt Disney Co’s Disney+  has also said it would introduce an ad-supported tier.

All the streaming services are affected by the pandemic as the boom in streaming fades, competition tightens and rising inflation pinches consumer spending on entertainment.

Netflix Firing Employees

In another development, Netflix has once again shown the exit door to an additional 300 employees in the second round of layoffs.

Recently, it has laid off several employees.

Apparently, the cuts are across multiple business functions in the company, with the bulk of the jobs lost in the US.

The decision of layoffs hit just a few weeks after the streaming giant with a global workforce of roughly 11,000 staffers, made an initial round of reductions of similar size in May.

During that time, Netflix laid off 150 employees, and dozens of contractors and part-time workers.

At the same time, many top-notch creative professionals from its original series vertical, including Sebastian Gibbs and Negin Salmasi, were asked to go.