Meanwhile, the addition of video games to its list continues, and of layoffs to make ends meet, Netflix is preparing for Squid Games-themed news, and engages in the first meetings to look for an advertising partner.
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Netflix, the giant of entertainment via streaming, for some time in crisis due to competition (eg Disney +, Paramount +, HBO Max), has announced news in terms of gaming, reality TV shows, but also cost cuts and new management changes. All while taking the first steps in the direction of a low cost offer supported by advertising.
In recent months, Netflix has experienced its first drop in users in its history and this has forced the company co-directed by Reed Hastings to be more aware of how and where it spends its money, and of the fact that expenses go. commensurate with the revenue trend. In this sense, a move has already been undertaken, as inferred from a document sent in recent days to the SEC supervisory body, with which it is announced that, from June 27, he will take up service, reporting to CFO Spencer Neumann, a new chief accountant, Ken Barker, with a background at Deloitte & Touche LLP and Sun Microsystems, who most recently held the position of Senior VP Finance at Electronic Arts.
Barker will succeed JC Berger in the role, who left the company on June 10th after 15 years of ongoing commitment. It is not clear if the new employee has already started operating, but something has already occurred, at the employment level, in that of Netflix. Variety anticipated that the platform, after the layoffs in May, fired another 300 employees (out of a total of about 11 thousand), belonging to various functions, mostly concentrated in the US, as a move to ensure that costs “grow in line with the our slowest revenue growth “. At the moment, it is unclear whether more layoffs will follow in the future, but the two co-CEOs, Hastings and Sarandos, according to The Hollywood Reporter, have reassured staff by saying that they “plan to return to a more normal course of business in the future. “.
Another avenue to reverse the trend will be to launch cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions. In this regard, according to CNBC, which reported the opinion of a source who has entrenched himself in anonymity, the platform would have given 2-3 months to put a senior executive at the head of a team dedicated to the project and at the same time it would have engaged in choosing an advertising partner. For this reason, at the Cannes Lions international advertising festival the big N, in the guise of Sarandos, would have already undertaken some meetings, specifically, with Google (leader of advertising, active in videos with YouTube and in subscriptions with YouTube Premium and YouTube TV ), with Roku (creator of streaming dongles and connoisseur of “ad-supported subscription trends”) and with Comcast / NBCUniversal (which could help with Freewheel, its “integrated digital ad management platform”). Asked about it, Netflix explained that it was still in the initial stages of the idea of an ad-supported option and that, therefore, in the absence of decisions made, those circulated are mere speculations.
Starting from the most concrete and upcoming news, Netflix has announced the start of the recruitment of competitors for the reality show “Squid Game: The Challenge” inspired by the homonymous South Korean series. From what has emerged so far, it will be a show in 10 episodes filmed in the United Kingdom, in which 456 challengers will compete in various tests, eliminating each other (not literally!) Round after round, with the aim of going all the way, and winning the prize of 4.56 million dollars. Recently, the platform has admitted its interest in unscripted content and live streaming and it is not excluded that the program in question, co-produced by Studio Lambert and The Garden, may be part of this operational area.
In the meantime, on July 19th a new video game will arrive in favor of subscribers, both on Android and on iOS. This is Into The Breach, the turn-based strategy, conceived by Subset Games (appreciated for the roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light), already mirrored on mobile devices via GeForce Now after the purchase on Steam or Epic but, in this case, as an official port with a touch interface, obviously without advertising and in-app purchases, in which you will have to save the Earth at the head of giant mechs, under the banner of randomly generated, always different challenges.