Netflix Will Likely Ban Crypto Advertisements: Report
It is unclear whether the policy will be limited to Australia or apply globally.
Key Takeaways
- Reports from the Sydney Morning Herald suggest that Netflix will prohibit crypto advertisements.
- The streaming giant is expected to launch its ad-supported service later this year, possibly by November.
- Netflix, meanwhile, says that the details of its ad-supported service have not been finalized.
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Netflix likely plans to ban cryptocurrency-related advertisements when it introduces its ad-supported service later this year.
Netflix Could Ban Ads
Netflix is reportedly weighing a ban on crypto advertisements.
According to a September 5 report from The Sydney Morning Herald that cites local media sources, Netflix has entered discussions with local advertisers in Australia. According to those sources, the streaming giant will ban several types of advertising including cryptocurrency ads.
The report says that Netflix will also ban political advertisements, gambling advertisements, and ads targeted at children. It may put restrictions on pharmaceutical ads as well.
It is unclear whether the ban on crypto ads will apply only to Australia or to all countries receiving the ad-supported service, such as the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, and Germany.
In August, Australia announced plans to regulate crypto assets and related advertisements in such a way that customers are “adequately informed and protected.” Though those rules do not ban cryptocurrency advertising outright, it is possible that Netflix does not want to run afoul of local rules.
At the same time, today’s report does not state or imply that the ban on crypto will be limited to Australia.
Netflix told The Sydney Morning Herald that its ad policies are currently undecided. A spokesperson said that the company is “still in the early days” of determining its advertising model and that “no decisions have been made.”
However, most sources report that Netflix plans to launch the service as early as November. Contrary to Netflix’s own claims, this suggests that a launch is imminent.
If Netflix does go ahead with the ban, it will join a list of other Big Tech giants to take a stance against crypto marketing. Google and Facebook (now Meta) banned crypto advertisements in 2018, though the two companies relaxed their policies in June and December 2021 respectively.
Twitter, meanwhile, has banned crypto ads since 2018. It bans ads for most crypto services aside from centralized exchanges.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies.
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