Netflix To Grow To 10M Ad-Supported Global Subscribers, 3.1M In U.S., Canada: Analyst

Netflix will reach 10 million ad-supported subscribers globally by the end of this year, with about 30% -- 3.1 million -- coming from the U.S./Canada, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

This growth is slower-moving than previously forecast, when the research company estimated a total of 24 million global ad-supported subscribers.

“We are assuming that less than 25% of their global subscribers are taking the Basic [with ads] plan,” says the analyst note.

MoffettNathanson estimates growth of up to 18.4 million ad-supported subscribers in 2024, increasing to 35.4 million in 2027 -- with U.S./Canada ad-supported subscribers in 2024 hitting 5.6 million and then rising to 9.1 million in 2027.

Given that 12 markets are offering the ad-supported tier -- representing 60% of the all gross ad-supported subscribers -- it figures that “maybe 12% to 15% of the gross ads [subs] in any year may potentially be coming onto the basic with ads tier.”

advertisement

advertisement

Looking at the broader Netflix subscriber picture, the research company expects subscribers to its ad-free tier -- coming from its Standard plan ($15.49/month) and its Premium plan ($19.99/month) -- will grow 5.5 million in 2023 to total 235.9 million.

Most of the growth for Netflix will come from the Asia-Pacific territories.

MoffettNathanson expects that in the U.S. and Canada, these ad-free subscribers will slip by one million -- to land at 73.2 million. Heavy domestic competition as well as the maturing streaming and CTV marketplace has driven a decline in the market over the last two years, compared to the 2021 total of 75.2 million.

1 comment about "Netflix To Grow To 10M Ad-Supported Global Subscribers, 3.1M In U.S., Canada: Analyst".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, March 15, 2023 at 10:38 a.m.

    While we haven't, as yet, revised our prediction that Netflix might attain a 30  milllion U.S. subscriber base in three years the progress of this effort so far is very disappointing. If this estimate---that Netflix's ad-supported platform gets to only 7.4 million U.S. TV homes by 2025 is accurate---and it may well be. This means that Netflix will attain the audience size of a medium sized to smaller cable channel and,, no matter what innovative targeting capabilities it comes up with it will compete for only  a small portion of the total TV ad spend pie. Also, if its scale remains small---as predicted---it will have to become more competitive regarding CPM demands---as TV time buyers traditionally penalize low rated channels on their  CPMs---- as well as allowing advertisers more freedom of choice about what content their messages appear in ---or adjacent to. Under such pressure, the likely trade-off will be a substantial increase in commercialization to garner sufficient GRPs to off-set the lower CPMs.

    All of which causes me to ask whether Netflix has approached this whole concept in a very tentative manner---so as not to offend its core supporter "base". And also, why Netflix hasn't been more aggressive in promoting its AVOD offer to non-subscribers. Perhaps the new team recently installed at Netflix will come up with solutions. We shall see.

Next story loading loading..