Netflix’s Ad-Supported Plan Climbs To 40 Million Monthly Users

Netflix’s ad-supported plan now has 40 million active monthly users. The latest subscriber update confirms a major increase in Standard with ads subscribers in the past few months alone.

Back in January, Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s President of Advertising, confirmed the ad-supported plan had reached 23 million subscribers. Today, during Netflix’s Upfront presentation, Reinhard confirmed the number of ad-supported subscribers had risen to 40 million.

This not only confirms an increase of around 17 million since January, but also an increase of around 35 million when compared to the five million ‘with ads’ subscribers reported last May. Equally as impressive, Reinhard also explained that, in countries where the ad-supported plan is available, more than 40% of signups subscribe to the Standard with ads plan.

In a bid to continue to build out its ads business, Reinhard announced that Netflix is currently working on an in-house advertising technology platform that will launch by the end of 2025. The new platform will provide advertisers with “new ways to buy, new insights to leverage, and new ways to measure impact.”

Citing data from Nielsen, Netflix explained that more than 70% of its ad-supported subscribers watch for more than 10 hours of content on the streaming service each month. While good news from the advertiser perspective, Netflix was quick to make clear that ads continue to be implemented with the user experience in mind.

“We’re being incredibly strategic about how we present ads because we want our members to have a phenomenal experience. We conduct deep consumer research to make sure we stay ahead of the competition, bringing opportunities that are better for members and better for brands,” said Reinhard.

Earlier this month, Netflix confirmed 270 million subscribers in total. At the time, Netflix also confirmed it was going to stop reporting quarterly subscriber changes and would instead release subscriber updates as and when milestones are reached, such as today’s confirmation of 40 million ad-supported subscribers.