Netflix’s ad-supported pricing tier now boasts more than 23 million users per month around the world, according to the streamer’s president of advertising Amy Reinhard.
The figure comes just two months after Netflix said that the tier had 15 million active users per month and, in an October letter to shareholders, the firm said that the ad tier accounted for 30 per cent of all new signups in the 12 countries where it is available.
“The thing we’re really excited about is the engagement,” said Reinhard at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES 2024 at Las Vegas’ Aria Resort and Casino, noting that of Netflix’s customers on ad-supported plans, 85 per cent are streaming on the platform for more than two hours per day.
“We’re very fortunate to be able to take a long-term perspective on this,” Reinhard added.
“Scaling our business is absolutely our biggest priority right now, but we want to make sure we’re doing that in a meaningful way for the members.
“We know there’s a lot of work to do on our side, but we’re all about learning and iterating and working with our advertising partners to figure out, ‘How do we grow this business in a meaningful way?'”
Reinhard also said that its adtech deal with Microsoft was progressing well.
The success of Netflix’s ad-supported tier might have taken some by surprise. At Cannes in Cairns last year, Initiative’s boss Melissa Fein branded the platform’s launch “flaccid” and that it lacked the features that media agencies were looking for.
Netflix’s once inexorable user growth has taken a hit over the last year, too. In Australia, its subscriber numbers dropped for the first time in eight years.
