Netflix says its new ad-supported option plan -- called Basic with Ads — will be priced at $6.99 a month and will be launched November 3.
The ad-free Basic is priced at $9.99 in the U.S.
The subscription video-on-demand platform says its current plans -- ad-free Basic, Standard and Premium plans -- will not be affected.
Basic with Ads will be launched in 12 countries -- Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. -- and will average four to five minutes of ads per hour. Commercials will be 15 or 30 seconds in length, and will play before and during shows and films.
During a Thursday press conference, Jeremi Gorman, president of worldwide advertising for Netflix, said: “We will have hundreds of advertisers worldwide at launch -- from major automakers to CPG companies, leading travel, retail, and luxury brands. In fact, we have nearly sold out all of our inventory for launch.”
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Netflix will reportedly be charging brand marketers up to $65 for the cost-per-thousand viewers (CPMs).
A limited number of movies and TV shows will not be available to subscribers due to licensing restrictions.
Netflix continues to work on deals to get that content onto Basic with Ads.
Video quality for its Basic with Ads will remain the same as with Basic -- up to 720 pixels/HD. Its Standard and Premium plans offers better Full or Ultra High definition quality. priced at $15.49 and $19.99 respectively. There will be no ability to download titles.
Netflix says it will offer targeting capabilities by country and genre. Advertisers can prevent their ads from appearing on content that might be inconsistent with their brand -- including sexual or graphic violence content.
Netflix has struck measurement deals with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to measure viewability and traffic validity for advertising starting in the first quarter of 2023.
In addition, Netflix will use Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings for those marketers looking to target audiences in the U.S. This becomes available some time in 2023, eventually to be reported through Nielsen One, the company’s upcoming cross-platform measurement system.
This story has been updated.
So the first signal that TV time buyers are insisting on independent "audience" measurement has Netflix being forced to modify its original stance about not using Nielsen for that purpose. That's a start towards being more realistic about its selling posture. Next up will be Netflix's demands about minimum spending levels per agency and those very high CPMs for very small and untargeted "audiences". I suspect that here, as well, we will see new positions developing presently.