Netflix Has 5M 'Basic With Ads' Users, But Still 'A Long Way To Go': Sarandos

Netflix says its six-month-old advertising-supported platform has now amassed five million global monthly active users -- double its total of earlier this year.

During the company’s first upfront advertising event on Wednesday -- a virtual presentation -- Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said: “We have a long way to go to build scale in advertising.”

With regard to its ‘Basic With Ads’ option, Netflix says the median user age is 34, and that 70% of its ad-supported members are between the ages of 18 and 49.

Netflix also touted strong engagement among ad-supported streaming users with Netflix content -- well above that of the competition when it comes to “reach,” according to Jeremi Gorman, president of worldwide advertising for Netflix, during the event.

Netflix’s “reach [is] at two or more hours is higher than almost everyone else’s reach [which is] at a one-minute threshold,” she said -- “Two hours compared to one minute.” These results come from Nielsen data.

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Greg Peters, co-chief executive officer of Netflix, said that overall, 25% of Netflix’ new sign-ups for its platform is with its ‘Basic With Ads’ option.

One major concern for marketers media schedules on streaming platforms is too much frequency of their messaging. Gorman says Netflix leads the industry when it comes to frequency caps. She didn’t go into details, other than to reiterate Netflix has a load of four to five minutes per hour.

From a recent deal with measurement company EDO, Netflix says results show viewers are over four times more likely to engage with an ad on Netflix compared to other streamers -- and over four and a half times more likely than linear TV.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos promised the company will be working on new advertising breakthroughs, that this would yield “a better future for ad-supported streaming” and the opportunity to “build something together.”

An April survey by Aluma Research said nearly half of Netflix's new customers believe its advertising messaging is either “a bit too much” or “far too much.”

Netflix’s $6.99 a month “Basic With Ads” option started up in November 2022. Within a month media buyers were concerned over ad inventory ad shortages, which resulted in cash back to advertisers.

Since then Netflix has largely fixed this issue, according to media buyers. Now, between 90% to 95% of Netflix’s overall content is now available on its ad-option.

The initial price tag set in November of advertising on Netflix was reported to be at a pricy $65 CPM (cost per thousand viewers).

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