Commentary

Netflix Should Fix Its 'Tune-In' Problem With Linear TV Ads

by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, Yesterday

Netflix has a viewership and program "tune-in" problem, with reports of losses of over 50% of its viewership on top shows season to season.

The problem is fixable. One of the most efficient solves would be to speak to Netflix subscribers when they’re watching linear TV.

The paradox of choice on TV today is enormous. It’s absolutely impossible for any TV viewer today to know everything that’s available that they might want to watch.

When it comes to TV series, we all know that if you haven’t seen season one, you are not going to watch season two. The same for missing season two and not watching season three, and so on.

Thus, if you want to develop audience continuity and growth season over season, you have to be smart and methodical. The best way to do that is to reach viewers, segmented by interests and previous behaviors, when they are already watching TV, and let them know about the upcoming season of the great series they watched previously.

Program promotion advertising -- “tune-in” advertising -- has been around for many decades and is incredibly effective. Why? Because nothing sells TV like TV.

OK, assuming that Netflix buys in to the fact that it should leverage TV ads to drive viewership, why should it even consider trying to reach them on linear TV? Netflix is streamed. Shouldn’t it first and foremost promote shows on its own air?

Yes, but ad spots on its own service are few, and can drive super-high CPMs from others. So using Netflix’s own spots is very expensive.

How about buying ads on other streaming services or on connected TVs? Once again, these spots can work well, but they are super expensive. And, since Netflix is competitive in some ways with other services, you can be certain that Netflix will have to pay top dollar.

Linear TV reaches the vast majority of Netflix subscribers daily, and can deliver more than 40 ads to those subscribers each and every day.

Yes, eMarketer tells us that Netflix subscribers watch 2.5 hours of linear TV on average daily in the U.S.

Critically, not only are many tens of millions of subscribers available weekly, but they can be targeted efficiently in heavily concentrated cohorts on the basis of content, time of day or granular previous viewing behaviors through data-driven linear TV ad platforms.

So Netflix could be measuring performance at the spot and person level, understanding exactly how many of its subscribers it was reaching, and whether or not they then watched a new show or season. This can all be measured on a “cost per converted viewer” (CPCV) basis, something many TV company marketers do on a daily basis for their own tune-in ads.

Most importantly, linear TV ads -- even data-driven targeted ads -- cost a fraction of targeted ads in premium streaming or on smart TVs, typically one-third of the cost at the strategic target level. Steaming ads on TV cannot match the CPCV of linear when the target audience is in the many millions daily.

Of course, for Netflix to leverage linear ads -- other than super-expensive brand ads on top show in prime time -- would be cultural anathema. Its story is that “old TV” is dead and only “new TV” matters, even though Nielsen Gauge demonstrates that 50% of all TV viewing time in the U.S. is still on linear -- and, almost 85% of ad viewing time is still on linear, since so much streaming viewing is on ad-free or ad-light services.

What do you think? Should Netflix look to its old grandma, linear TV, to help solve its viewership problem?

television, tv

6 comments about "Netflix Should Fix Its 'Tune-In' Problem With Linear TV Ads".

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Howard Shimmel from Janus Strategy & Insights, LLC, July 16, 2026 at 6:07 p.m.
Dave, incredibly smart thinking. I think Netflix is like Home Depot. Imagine you went to Home Depot without knowing what you needed to buy, and you spend hours roaming the aisle hoping to find something. You'd leave frustrated. I think searching through Netflix, without intent for what I want to watch, is equally frustrating. The other important benefit that linear offers is the ability to generate an incredibly high amount of reach in a day/two days/three days. Exposure closer to the point of viewing is much more effective than reach further away. We knew that from research we did at Turner 15 years ago.
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Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics replied, July 16, 2026 at 6:40 p.m.

We now get to the difference between promotion for subscription vs promotion for tune in. Netflix may have mastered the former, but promo folks who worked for cable nets could easily do what's needed for program/tune in promos. Howard saw it across Turner nets. Jay Leon, also at Turner, used it to maximize NCAA basketball inventory. Just using a single nets own air has never been the ideal, even in the days of broadcast dominance. Nowadays it's easy to find what linear shows watch any program on Netflix. A no brainer. Wonder if Amazon Prime and Apple are listening. They have the same lessons to learn from seasoned linear network marketing and research folks.

Dave Morgan from Simulmedia replied, July 16, 2026 at 7:27 p.m.

Great points Howard. I should have highlighted the high amount of reach and recency that TV can deliver in tight windows ...

Dave Morgan from Simulmedia, July 16, 2026 at 7:29 p.m.

Spot on Jack. Netflix knows subscription marketing like no one else. But they don't know promo marketing and TV research stars like you and Howard delivered it day in and day out at massive scale for years.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, July 16, 2026 at 8:43 p.m.

Dave how can that eMarketer stat about an average Netflix subscriber hold up when the norm for all TV home residents re their daily dosage of linear TV fare is only 2.2 hours per day and the corresponding figure among those under the age of 55--presumably the targets for Netflix program tune in ads--- is considerably lower.

Traditionally, the variousTV networks and cable channels traded program promo announcements for free until they finally realized that they were, in effect, promoting their competitors fare which worked against their own interests. I can't see the broadcast TV networks even accepting Netflix cash buys for promotional announcements--though I may be wrong about their level of intelligence. Some cable channels--sure--providing they don't feel threatened by Netflix---A&E, The Food Channel, Weather Chanel, CNN, etc., maybe, but TBS, USA, even Bravo, I tend to doubt it.

As for the CPM differentials, broadcast TV CPMs are higher than streaming based on total viewers 2+ and go through the roof if you are targeting the under 55 crowd and this--as we reveal in our new report, "TV/VIDEO CPM track, also aplies to cable despite its much lower overall CPM.

I think you hit the nail on the head by pointing out that it's time for Netflix to stop trying to serrialize its shows across seasons. That's asking for much too much loyalty from viewers who now have an overabundance of viewing options. It worked fine when Netflix and Hulu had streaming all to themselves and most viewers were young adults or teens--but not now. Give each season some sort of ending, then revive the series, with some new regulars and scenarios, while keeping a hold on the original premise and theme when you start another skein of episodes.
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Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics replied, July 16, 2026 at 9:13 p.m.

Ed, Emarketer stats never correspond to Nielsens and I agree there is little relevance there. As far as buying airtime on networks, especially cable nets, there are many workarounds that can be used to obtain solid ad inventory. In fact Simumedia specializes in many of them.