Netflix's ad tier has 15 million monthly active users, streamer says

Netflix’s ad-supported tier has 15 million monthly active users globally, the streamer announced Wednesday.

The figure, which Netflix disclosed as part of a one-year update on its ads business after branching out into advertising last November, marks a considerable jump from the nearly 5 million monthly active users the ads plan had in May during the company’s first-ever upfront. It’s an indication that the company’s efforts to encourage ad-supported adoption by raising the price of ad-free viewing might be working.

“We want to shape the future of advertising on Netflix and help marketers tap into the amazing fandom generated by our must-watch shows and movies,” Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s newly minted president of advertising, said in a company blog post.

Coming up: As Netflix continues to push into advertising, it has some new ad formats waiting in the wings. By the end of this year in the US, Netflix will roll out “Moment Sponsorships,” where local holidays and other cultural moments will be available for advertisers to sponsor. (That format, along with other sponsorship opportunities, will roll out globally in 2024.) The company is opening up title-level sponsorships on reality shows like Squid Game: The Challenge, on dramas like The Crown, and on the company’s forays into live sports, including The Netflix Cup golf tournament, which will air later this month.

And in early 2024, Netflix will allow advertisers to place QR codes into ad creative on US-based campaigns, Reinhard announced.

But advertisers will have to wait a little bit longer for Netflix’s forthcoming binge ad format, which VP of global advertising sales Peter Naylor announced during Advertising Week. The format, in which advertisers will be able to sponsor an episode of ad-free viewing after viewers have watched more than three consecutive episodes of television, will also roll out in Q1 of 2024, not later this year, as previously announced.

Measure this: The streamer also has plans to improve campaign measurement on the platform after previous partnerships with companies like DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, EDO, and Nielsen. Netflix is looking “to partner internationally with third-party providers to enable campaign verification in 2024,” Reinhard said.