Alphabet’s Google and Comcast’s NBCUniversal are main the race for a tie-up with Netflix to assist it create an advertisement-supported subscription plan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

Comcast’s video commercial division, Freewheel, can assist Netflix with know-how to ship advertisements, whereas NBCUniversal’s gross sales staff can help the streaming service supplier with promoting commercials within the United States and Europe, the report added.

Google, which already has a relationship with Netflix as a supplier of ad-buying instruments, may pursue an unique take care of the corporate, the report mentioned.

Netflix, Alphabet and Comcast didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.

Netflix mentioned in April that inflation, the battle in Ukraine and fierce competitors had contributed to a lack of subscribers for the primary time in additional than a decade.

The firm may introduce its lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan by the top of the yr, sooner than initially deliberate, as reported beforehand.

Last month, two people who had entry to the inner Netflix be aware shared it with The New York Times, which reveals that Netflix executives are aiming to launch the ad-supported tier between October and December 2022. It’s unclear at this level how Netflix’s foray into commercials will work, because it’s one of many solely ones internationally — between Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Hulu, Peacock, and Paramount+ — to supply a number of plans that differentiate throughout video high quality and variety of simultaneous screens, and never content material. Will there be an ad-supported model of Netflix’s Mobile, Basic, Standard, and Premium plans? That appears probably, because it’d enable Netflix to focus on clients extensively.

© Thomson Reuters 2022