Ads will start appearing on Netflix’s Irish service from March 1st 2027, the streaming platform announced at an event in London on Thursday evening.
It did not outline how much the service will cost to subscribers who agree to take ads as part of their package.
Netflix already has an ad-supported tier on its UK service and charges subscribers there £7.99 (€9.29) a month, while its standard subscription is £13.99.
Viewers are shown close to five minutes of non-skippable ads per hour of video streaming, before and during movies and TV programmes.
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If the UK model is used in Ireland, the ad-based offering is likely to cost about €10 a month.
Earlier this month, customers in Ireland were hit with another price increase when Netflix announced the cost of its standard plan – the one held by most customers – was climbing by 12 per cent.
The standard plan, which allows two users access the platform’s content on different devices simultaneously, has gone up by €2 a month to €18.99.
That means the annual cost of a subscription for the plan will cost Irish consumers €227.88.
The annual cost was €83.88 when the service first arrived in Ireland in 2012, with just one entry-level price offered at the time.
That represents an increase of about 172 per cent in 14 years on the price of a standard package.
The latest round of price increases will see the streamer’s cheapest plan climbing from €10.99 to €11.99.
Its top-end premium plan, which allows subscribers to stream on four devices simultaneously, is going from €23.99 to €25.99.
Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s president of advertising, said its ad-supported plan will expand to nine European countries from the start of next March.
As well as Ireland, the ad model will be rolled out in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.
Speaking at an event in London, Reinhard said: “We’ve got cutting-edge tech. We’ve got great entertainment. We’ve got the most engaged and attentive audience anywhere. We’ve proven we’re effective. And we’re ready to compete with anyone."
