At its TV upfront presentation in May, Netflix reported that it had 40 million monthly active ad tier users. However, buyers recently told ADWEEK that scale is still Netflix’s biggest hurdle for its ad tier, so a shift to add users makes sense.

“Netflix doesn’t use bundles much, but when they do, they do it to grow the advertising audience,” Ross Benes, a senior analyst with eMarketer, said. “Pushing people from obsolete plans onto ad plans would be another tactic that accomplished the same goal. That is less aggressive though than doing what Prime Video did in defaulting all viewers onto the ad tier.”

Though some consumers may initially cry foul at the Netflix change, they’re unlikely to cancel their subscriptions, according to Proulx, who added that Forrester’s research shows that consumers are willing to tolerate ads on streaming if it means not having to pay higher prices.

“The cost difference between Netflix’s ad tier and its standard no-ads tier is $8.50 per month,” Prolux said. “That adds up quickly.”

In reality, any negative feedback may be short-lived.

“Any protest would be minor,” Benes said. “There are constant ‘boycotts’ of Netflix and others over content, pricing, etc. — that has little to no effect on Netflix’s audience size or the streaming market. Viewers will complain more than they will cancel.”