Netflix Reveals Ad-Tier Now Has Roughly 5 Million Monthly Active Users

During a virtual presentation this week, Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters revealed that the streamer’s new ad-supported tier has nearly five million global monthly active users.

As reported by Adweek, Peters revealed that the newly added ad tier has seen rising growth and adoption since earlier this year. In March, Netflix revealed that its new tier surpassed one million subscribers. Since that time, the streamer has seen roughly four million subscribers latch on to the entry-level pricing model.

In addition, Netflix recently revealed that it now supports 232.5 million subscribers worldwide in an earnings call. While the overall user base for the ad tier is low in comparison to the overall global total, Peters reveals new subscribers are leaning more towards the cheaper tier. More than a quarter of new Netflix subscribers choose the ad-tier plan when signing up in a region where it is available.

In Canada, the ad-supported tier is available for $5.99 a month. ‘Basic with Ads’ includes access to the Netflix catalogue with streaming quality limited to 720p HD.  On average, interstitial ads last 15 to 30 seconds with a total of four to five minutes worth of ads each hour.

Peters reveals that 80 percent of ad-tier subscribers watch their content on TV. Although streaming on other devices is enabled, offline downloads aren’t available on the cheaper tier.

As far as demographics go, the company reveals that 70 percent of the ad-tier subscribers are in the 18-49 age range. The global median is roughly 34 years old.

A surprising data note is that Entertainment Data Oracle (EDO) claims viewers are more than four times as likely to engage with an ad on Netflix than other streaming services. By the same metric, subscribers are more than four and a half times more likely to engage with Netflix ads than those from traditional television.

Jeremi Gorman, president of worldwide advertising says the company has “worked hard to be brilliant at the basics, focusing on areas advertisers told us matter most–like geo, age and gender targeting; third-party verification and deploying the right brand suitability mechanisms for [advertisers] to make the best decisions for [their] brand.”

Netflix states that in the U.S., advertisers will soon be able to run sponsorships at the start of an episode of the streamer’s most popular series at launch. These opportunities will likely drive brand competition to snag that acclaimed spot for the next Netflix flagship series. It’s not yet known whether similar brand incentives will come to Canada.