Netflix to launch in-house adtech platform by end 2025

Netflix has revealed plans to launch an in-house advertising technology platform by the end of 2025 as it aims to give advertisers insights to leverage and new ways to buy while also measuring impact.

This follows Netflix’s continued growth and momentum of its ad-supported plan which currently has 40 million global monthly active users compared to five million a year ago. In fact, over 40% of all signups in the ads countries now come from the ads plan, according to a statement by Netflix.

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Netflix will also partner with Affinity Solutions, DoubleVerify, EDO Inc, Integral Ad Science, iSpotTV, Kantar, Lucid, NCSolutions, Nielsen and TVision to provide advertisers with a means to measure and verify the impact of their campaigns.

As part of its advertising growth plans, it will expand its buying capabilities to include The Trade Desk, Google's Display & Video 360, and Magnite who will join Microsoft as its main programmatic partners for advertisers this summer.

“Bringing our ad tech in-house will allow us to power the ads plan with the same level of excellence that’s made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today,” said Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s president of advertising.

"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,” she explained.

The Netflix ads plan and live events will also give advertisers more opportunities to thoughtfully engage with fandoms of shows and films which influence culture known as the 'Netflix effect' according to Marian Lee, Netflix chief marketing officer.

“It starts with wonderful stories that become unmissable moments for millions of fans,” said Lee. “But then it spreads across Netflix — where our trailers get billions of views — and across our social media channels, where we have a billion very active followers.”

Netflix aims to help advertisers reach more fans on-screen as well as off-screen and during some its biggest moments.

As over 70% of Netflix’s ad-supported members watch for more than 10 hours a month, 15 percentage points higher than its nearest competitor, Netflix shows that its audience is highly engaged.

In fact, Netflix has achieved a total watch time of 32.9 billion hours which is ahead of Disney+ in second place with 5.3 billion hours.

“Our audiences are highly engaged — and by engaged, I mean that they are choosing to spend their time watching Netflix. That’s important because engagement is the key to success in streaming,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix's chief content officer.

“When people watch our shows and movies, they get more value from Netflix, they stick around longer, and they’re more likely to recommend us to their friends. And this matters to all of you because you want to be where the audiences are, too,” added Bajaria.

Despite the growth in numbers presented, the streaming giant said it will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers and average revenue per membership (ARM) in 2025.

According to the company in its letter to shareholders, subscriber numbers are no longer a strong indicator of its future potential as its "generating very substantial profit and free cash flow (FCF)".

Instead, Netflix wants its investors to judge the company by metrics such as revenue, operating margin, free cash flow and the amount of time spent on the platform.

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