Netflix’s Ad-Supported Tier May Not Include All Their Shows and Movies

With the new subscription tier Netflix is set to launch in early 2023, streamers may find that some of their favorite content won’t make it to the cheaper, ad-supported plan.

Though we likely won’t have to worry about Netflix originals like Stranger Things or Bridgerton, much of the content licensed and co-produced by U.S. studios and international distributors could be at stake. However, the streamer is currently in talks with partners such as Warner Bros., who makes the stalker thriller You, and Sony Pictures Television, who makes Cobra Kai, about making these movies and shows available, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The news came during Tuesday’s second quarter earnings call, where co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said, “Today, the vast majority of what people watch on Netflix, we can include in the ad-supported. There’s some things that don’t and we’re in conversations with the studios on, but if we launched the product today, members in the ad-tier would have a great experience.”

While Sarandos said they would “clear some additional content but certainly not all of it,” the company does not believe it’s a “material holdback for the business.”

In the same call, Sarandos announced that the streaming giant had lost another 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter, just about a million less than their original quarter two projection of 2 million.

The decision to create an ad-supported plan came with the company’s first-quarter earnings call, where they reported a subscriber loss of 200,000 — their first loss since 2011.