Netflix’s cheaper ad tier surges to 23M monthly active users: ad chief
Netflix has seen subscriptions for its lower-priced advertising tier soar — jumping by 8 million over the past two months, the company said.
The streaming giant — which rolled out its Basic With Ads plan for $6.99 a month in November 2022 — has amassed more than 23 million global monthly active users, according to Netflix’s president of advertising Amy Reinhard.
That total stood at just over 15 million shortly after the company announced its third-quarter earnings last October.
The ad-tier subscriptions account for approximately 30% of all new signups in the 12 countries where it launched the platform, which includes the US, the company said.
The ad-tier growth spurt follows reports that Netflix’s rollout was off to a rocky start, with the streamer allowing advertisers to take back money for ads that had not run yet because it missed viewership targets.
But Netflix’s fortunes appear to be changing amid reports that more customers are re-evaluating their spend on streaming and are opting for more inexpensive ad-supported plans, in some cases.
The ad tier subscribers are quickly becoming a bigger portion of Netflix’s 247.2 million global users who pay $15.49 a month for the standard, ad-free plan.
With the added commercials, 85% of customers on the ad-supported plans are streaming on the platform for more than two hours a month, the company said.
“The thing we’re really excited about is the engagement,” Reinhard said Wednesday at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES in Las Vegas.
The exec told Variety that the company is looking at ways to grow the business in a “meaningful way” while keeping customers engaged and focused on its movies and shows.
“We’re very fortunate to be able to take a long-term perspective on this,” Reinhard said.
“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,” she said.
