(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – A week into its introduction, Netflix’s more affordable ad-supported plan is being met with a lukewarm response from South Korean users.
Consumer Insight conducted a survey of 1,473 consumers, only 13 percent of whom had the intention to use or switch to Netflix’s ad-supported plan.
Only a few Netflix users intended to switch to the new plan (15 percent), and few new subscribers were interested in the new plan (12 percent).
Both subscribers (51 percent) and non-subscribers (35 percent) of Netflix said they did not want to subscribe to the ad-supported plan because they “didn’t want to watch any advertisements.”
Other Netflix users said the ads were too long (14 percent), the video resolution was poor (12 percent), and only two people could access the account simultaneously (11 percent).
Other non-users of Netflix said the subscription fee wasn’t as affordable as they expected (21 percent), the ads were too long (13 percent), and the video resolution was poor (9 percent).
The respondents said the optimum subscription price would be around 4,200 won (US$3.19), with no longer than two minutes of ad-watching, showing gaps between the specifications of Netflix’s ad-supported plan (5,500 won, four to five minutes of ads).
At 57 percent, more than half of the respondents intended to sign up for the new plan if it cost no more than 5,000 won.
Exceeding 5,000 won, demand fell drastically, reaching 28 percent above 5,500 won.
As for the ad-watching time, 80 percent of respondents said they would tolerate one or two minutes of advertisements.
In contrast, only 51 percent said they were willing to watch more than two minutes of ads, which was still a lot shorter than the four or five minutes of ad-watching in the new Netflix plan.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
