Netflix’s ad tier reaches 190m monthly active viewers
Netflix’s ad tier now reaches 190m monthly active viewers across its 12 markets, the streaming giant revealed today.
In the UK, Netflix’s ad tier reached 12.1m viewers during October, according to Barb figures. This is up 65% from October 2024 and a rise of 13% from this September.
The streaming giant has also joined France’s TV joint-industry currency Médiamétrie, which reported the ad tier reached 10m viewers in that market during September. Netflix also counts over 50m ad tier viewers in the US, 10.2m in Spain, 9.5m in Germany and 7.5m in Italy.
Damien Bernet, Netflix’s EMEA ads VP, told The Media Leader that the ad tier figures signify “pretty tremendous growth” since the streaming giant launched its ad tier three years ago this week.
“We grew from zero to 190m. It’s a testament to the huge investment and huge growth we’ve been seeing,” he said.
The global monthly active viewer metric differs from how Netflix previously reported ad tier figures, which were based on account profiles signed up to the ad tier.
The new monthly active viewer metric is defined as Netflix users who have watched at least one minute of ad-supported content on the platform per month. That figure is then multiplied by the estimated average household size, based on Netflix’s first-party research.
The streaming giant believes this gives a “more comprehensive” account of how many people are “actually on the couch” watching Netflix’s ad tier.
Programmatic growth
At the Future of Media London earlier today, Bernet told The Media Leader that more than 55% of new Netflix subscribers in the UK choose the ad tier. “And they actually stick to it,” he added.
Like other TV companies, the streaming giant claims it maintains a high level of consumer attention. Citing data from TVision, Bernet said the “level of attention you get from our viewers on Netflix is the same when they start a show until three hours after they started watching”.
For advertisers, Bernet said the company is dedicated to innovating its in-house adtech stack — which it launched in Europe this summer — and positioning its broader ad offering as part of an industry-wide effort to recapture hard-to-reach audiences in the streaming era.
“It’s an opportunity for an advertiser to get back to these viewers,” said Bernet, referring to young viewers who have moved away from watching linear TV. He referred to Netflix as “complementary” to linear.
The streaming giant is now testing “modular” interactive video ad formats in the US. The Netflix Ads Suite is also testing a planning API to help agency partners understand how to identify target audiences for their clients. Both efforts are expected to be rolled out globally by Q2 next year.
While Netflix has not publicly revealed ad revenue figures, Bernet said the company expects to more than double ad revenue this year. Notably, programmatic advertising revenues “are growing more quickly than our ad revenue in general”.
Such growth has come as Netflix continues to expand its programmatic partner base. Netflix partnered with Amazon Ads in September to join its DSP, and similarly joined Yahoo’s DSP in June.
Bernet called the partnerships a “win-win-win”, noting they are a way to drive growth in its number of clients, even as Amazon’s Prime Video is also a competitor streaming platform.
“We love the idea of [media agencies and clients] buying from Netflix, but we need this to be easy to buy,” he added.
The live opportunity
While the programmatic business is leading ad revenue growth, brand partnerships are also a core aspect of Netflix’s ads business.
Bernet said that demand is high to partner with tentpole titles like Stranger Things, Squid Game and Wednesday, but admitted the company has more work to do identifying and curating what shows might work best with different clients, especially as Netflix’s own production output has increased and seemingly niche titles like KPop Demon Hunters have drawn sustained mass viewing.
Netflix is also selling ads against live content in the UK. Bernet singled out Netflix’s live Christmas Day NFL games as seeing high advertiser demand this year, attributing that interest to the power of live sport.
The live opportunity is significant, according to Bernet, because it includes not only ad tier subscribers but also premium tier subscribers. Ad breaks during the matches, he explained, reach “the entirety of Netflix’s members”.
On top of other developments, Bernet announced that Netflix is working on bringing a new generative AI tool, launching in the US and debuting in Europe “early next year”, that aims to help connect Netflix show assets to brand assets to create bespoke ads for clients.
“Now that we have our adtech [stack], we have control of our destiny,” he concluded. “It’s going to be a big drum beat in terms of innovation, of targeting, measurement, formats.”
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Editor’s note: This article has been edited since publication. An earlier version of this article said Netflix’s new monthly active viewer (MAV) metric is defined as ‘Netflix users who have watched at least one minute of ads on the platform per month’. This is incorrect; the MAV metric is defined as the number of users who have watched one minute of ad-supported content on the platform per month.