Netflix has scared TV networks into showing fewer ads

Younger viewers are growing up on ad-free content

Video-streaming platform Netflix plans to take new steps to prevent its subscribers form streaming content that isn’t available in their country

Major cable companies including Time Warner, Fox and Viacom have begun cutting down ad breaks to try and provide a user experience more similar to Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services, according to Bloomberg.

Because of its subscription model, Netflix doesn’t run any ads before, during or after its shows, and it seems networks are worried that younger viewers used to this will be alienated by their commercials-laden content.

On a recent earnings call, Time Warner’s CEO promised to cut its "ad time" in half for primetime shows, starting next year, on its youth-orientated channel truTV.

“We know one of the benefits of an ecosystem like Netflix is its lack of advertising,” Howard Shimmel, a chief research officer at Time Warner, told Bloomberg. “Consumers are being trained there are places they can go to avoid ads.” Once you get used to having no ads, the ones that still exist can become more and more grating."

The decrease in ads has started in the US where they’re particularly ubiquitous, but the UK and other territories could end up following suit, as the television industry reevaluates how best to distribute and monetise its content.