As it wraps up its third year with an ad-supported tier, Netflix is calling its ad business a success for both viewers and advertisers. In a roundtable call on Wednesday, Netflix Ads president Amy Reinhard reported the tier has 6.6 million monthly active viewers (MAVs) in Canada. Globally, in its 12 ad-supported markets, Netflix reaches 190 million MAVs.
The streamer also said that it now has thousands of ad clients around the world, and it will now work at enhancing offerings to them through new ad options and a reassessment of how it measures ad reach.
The streamer has rolled out Netflix Ads Suite, its in-house first-party ad tech platform in all 12 ad-supported countries, and expanded the programmatic offering to include Amazon, AJA, Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk and Yahoo DSP. Additionally, it is partnering with over 50 global ad measurement vendors.
Previous measurement was based on account profiles and didn’t account for all the people viewing in the room. Monthly Active Viewers (MAV) is based on Netflix subscribers who have watched at least one minute of ads per month, multiplied by the estimated number of people in the household, according to Netflix first-party research.
This month, advanced demographic targeting has also been expanded to allow advertisers to reach relevant audiences with options like education, marital status and household income.
There are a lot of new ad opportunities for advertisers to look forward to. As announced earlier this year, Netflix is exploring modular ad formats, and this month it began testing modular interactive video ads in the U.S. and Canada. With this format, advertisers build ads using dynamic templates that use mix-and-match creative elements. This format is expected to roll out globally Q2 2026.
As Netflix continues to grow its roster of must-watch live events, it is testing dynamic ad insertion (DAI) with WWE Raw and SmackDown this quarter. DAI will be available across the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico and the U.K. for the upcoming NFL Christmas Gameday. While this programming was available in the Canadian marketplace last year, Canadian advertisers will now be able to take part for the first time. Next year, DAI will be available in more live titles such as the Women’s World Cup.
According to Netflix Canada, subscribers spend 40 hours per month on the streamer, with 45% of Canadians reporting they pay more attention to ads on Netflix than they do with other streamers. Netflix also says viewers pay as much attention to the mid-roll ads as to the shows and the movies themselves.
