Netflix’s ad-supported tier has hit 190 million monthly active viewers globally since launching the offering three years ago.
A monthly active viewer is defined as members who have watched at least one minute of ad-supported content on Netflix per month, multiplied by the estimated average number of people within a household, which the company gets from first-party research. The figure includes members who have watched live titles such as WWE “Raw” in the last month.
The new metric is a switch from its previous monthly active users figure, which was based on the amount of profiles watching ads.
“We always knew that it was a conservative representation of our reach, because Netflix viewing is oftentimes a very communal experience, and MAU did not capture any co-viewing,” Mitzi Reaugh, head of finance and strategy for Netflix’s ads business, told reporters on Wednesday. “Our move to viewers means we can give a more comprehensive count of how many people are enjoying our cant-miss series, films and live events with friends and family.”
Netflix previously said at its upfront in May that the company had around 170 million monthly active viewers, though the company’s executives clarified to reporters on Wednesday that the figure was not based on the new one minute qualifier and is not a complete apples to apples comparison.
They also said that the one minute qualifier came after evaluating its competitors, claiming their thresholds ranged from zero to 10 seconds. Amazon, which has 130 million MAUs on Prime Video in the U.S. and an average monthly ad-supported audience of more than 300 million globally across its entertainment properties, does not break out its methodology. Disney, which has 164 million monthly ad-supported viewers across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, bases the figure on active accounts that have viewed ad-supported content continuously for more than 10 seconds, multiplied by the estimated number of users per account.
“We kind felt like one minute was you’re logging on to the service and you were committed to a viewing session at that point,” Netflix ad president Amy Reinhard said. “So we felt like that was a more accurate representation.”
Reinhard added that the metric switch won’t change how it’s going to market and sell advertising.
“Our hope behind this metric is that we are just being more transparent and clear about how our audiences are interacting with the service,” she said. “We’re just trying to provide more information for our advertisers and buyers.”
Netflix addresses Prime Video competition, streaming’s shift to advertising
When asked directly about advertising competition from Amazon’s Prime Video, Reinhard emphasized that the company’s advantage is the engagement with its content. She noted that 30% and 70% of Netflix’s members log on to the platform on a daily and weekly basis in the U.S., respectively.
“We really don’t see any difference between in viewing, between our ad supported tiers and our standard and premium tiers. Any given show is a small percentage of our overall viewing and it really just depends what people want to log in and see,” Reinhard added when asked about the importance of live content on the ad tier. “So unscripted is as popular on the ads tier as it is on the standard and premium tiers and same with other genres, international content that’s on the service. So it’s very similar to the way that people are engaging with the content across the platform.”
Reinhard also addressed streaming’s pivot to ad-supported tiers, emphasizing that the industry is “continuing to evolve.” She also highlighted the company’s upcoming partnership with France’s TF1 in 2026.
“That’s something that we are testing and understanding if there’s member behavior that supports that, or how that will all weigh out. But I think bundles in the industry are always going to exist as people are figuring out how to grow their business,” she said. “It’s not a strategy that we have leaned into, but we continue to test and iterate in the industry and understand what our members want because at the heart of it for us is storytelling and what do members want and how do we keep them engaged.”
Interactive video ads, dynamic ad insertion and advanced targeting coming in 2026
In addition to the ad tier reach update, Netflix said that its been encouraged by the early results of testing interactive video ads in the U.S. and Canada. The interactive video ads will roll out globally by the second quarter of 2026.
It is also testing dynamic ad insertion with WWE “Raw” and “Smackdown” starting this quarter and will offer it across the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico and the U.K. for its upcoming NFL Christmas Day games. The offering will be expanded across more live titles in 2026.
“These are the start of our personalization journey and they add a ton of flexibility and optionality into what we’re trying to do,” Reinhard said. “Those are going to unlock and open a lot of new opportunities for us.”
Netflix also plans to roll out four advanced targeting capabilities in 2026 that will allow advertisers to target demographics by education, marital status and household income and “high-propensity viewers” with options like luxury vehicles, travel packages and dining experiences. It is also expanding its partnership with LiveRamp to allow ad clients to onboard audiences in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the U.K.
Additionally, Netflix is testing a new planning application programming interface (API) to help agency partners understand how to easily find the right audiences for their clients, which leverage in-house planning tools and real-time forecasting to provide insights for marketers to plan across key demographics and geographies.
Expanded brand, measurement, and programmatic partnerships
Netflix has launched new brand partnerships with Peroni Nastro Azzurro tied to “Emily in Paris”; Doritos, Gatorade, Target, Fiat, Nestlé and Unilever for takeovers and products connected to the final season of “Stranger Things”; and FanDuel, Verizon, Accenture and Tide for “NFL Christmas Gameday.”
The streamer has also launched new measurement partnerships with France’s Médiamétrie and Amplified Intelligence and Alter Agents in Mexico and Brazil, expanded its previous partnerships with Macromill in Japan and Kantar and iSpot in the U.S., and completed a direct integration with AudienceProject across Europe, the Middle East and Africa region for more granular reporting.
It also struck new programmatic partnerships with Yahoo, Amazon, AJA, Google Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk. When asked specifically about the Amazon partnership, Reinhard said that new integrations would roll out over the next six to 12 months.
“We’re very satisfied with the amount of volume that we’re seeing coming through that and I would only expect that that is going to grow as those integrations take hold in the first half of 2026,” she added.
As for international partnerships, Reinhard said the company is “actively investigating” ways to grow the ads business and having a “number of conversations” with partners across the 12 markets where the ad tier is available, including AGF in Germany and Autocom in Italy.