London, Europe Brief News – Netflix declared Microsoft Corp as a technology and sales partner for its planned ad-supported subscription offering.
The announcement came as the streaming giant looks to plug slowing subscriber growth by rolling out a cheaper plan.
The streaming platform said in April that it would introduce a new, lower-priced version of its service in a bid to attract more subscribers. At the moment, the cheapest subscription for a basic Netflix account is €8.99.
Wednesday’s announcement came as the pioneering subscription service posted its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, and projected deeper losses to come. Netflix lost 200,000 customers worldwide in the first quarter compared to the end of 2021.
Netflix stock rose to a session high on the heels of the announcement, up more than 2% in midday trading.
Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters said in a blog post that Netflix chose Microsoft because of its ability to innovate, as well as for its strong privacy protections.
“Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we work together to build a new ad-supported offering,” he said in a blog post.
“More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members,” he continued.
