Netflix Reaches 15 Million Subscribers, Introduces New Features
According to a blog post by Netflix Inc., their ad-supported plan has garnered 15 million customers worldwide within a year of its introduction.
The streaming service also announced new features for the plan, which costs $7 a month in the US, less than half the price of the standard plan. Subscribers can download movies and TV shows and watch two streams at the same time – in higher quality. Netflix also said it will let people who binge watch three episodes in a row of the show with a fourth ad-free. QR codes are introduced to allow viewers to interact with advertisements.
The level of advertising was part of an effort to attract new subscribers to the service after sign-ups began to decline last year. The service got off to a slow start because advertisers were worried about not getting enough viewers for their ads. In the last quarter, Netflix exceeded expectations with almost 9 million new customers.
Shares rose 1.9% to $419.31 at 10:31 a.m. in New York.
