Streamers, including Netflix, flocked to CES this week to strut their stuff in front of advertisers.
On Wednesday, Netflix shared another update on viewer numbers for its ad-supported tier. The Netflix Standard with Ads plan now has 23 million monthly active users globally – a considerable jump from the 15 million it just announced in November.
While subscribers refer to the number of paid accounts a streamer has, monthly active users refer to the number of individual profiles within a paid account.
Netflix also announced plans to roll out pause ads within the next few months.
Riding a growth curve
It appears Netflix is finally seeing the momentum in subscriber growth it was hoping for when it first launched ads just over a year ago.
In May, its ad-supported global MAU count was just 5 million. By August, that number had doubled to 10 million. For the sake of comparison, Disney is also experiencing a similar growth curve. (The last time Disney shared its AVOD subscriber count was in November, when it stood at around 7 million.)
Advertisers vocalized plenty of complaints about Netflix’s early lack of scale as recently as May.
But at its new rate of growth, Netflix should be in a much better position to make its case to marketers. Buyers want to get in front of enough viewers to justify their investment, particularly as they consider earmarking dollars for streaming during the upfronts, which is clearly already on the minds of media companies.
Ads, anyone?
Speaking of upfronts, Netflix should also have a wider array of ad inventory available in time for negotiations.
In a few months, the streamer is rolling out pause ads, which display after a viewer pauses a stream for at least five seconds. The idea is to be as minimally interruptive as possible. (If someone pauses a show by accident, for example, the sudden appearance of an ad could feel disruptive.)
In November, Netflix announced it will also introduce binge ads this quarter – which are brand sponsorship deals that let viewers access an ad-free episode in exchange for watching a sponsored message – and the ability for advertisers to include QR codes in ad creative.
General title sponsorships, which are pre-roll spots with messaging like “Presented by X Brand,” are already available to marketers in the US, with global availability coming next year. Brands can also buy 10-, 20- and 60-second spots on Netflix.
