Netflix‘s advertising tier is one year old today, and growing quickly.
In a blog post commemorating the one year anniversary of the tier, Netflix’s newly-installed head of advertising Amy Reinhard gave an update on the streaming giant’s still-nascent ads business.
For starters, Reinhard writes that it now has 15 million global monthly active users. That is up from 5 million, as announced back in May. The tripling in the last 5 months suggests that users are increasingly opting for the ad tier when they sign up for Netflix, or that the company’s password-sharing crackdown is working.
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But the company is also working to expand the tier with new options for both marketers and consumers. A big new addition for subscribers to the ad tier: The ability to download films and TV series, something that was not previously available in that lower-cost option. Reinhard writes that the functionality will be added this week.
“All members of the ad-supported plan will be able to download their favorite series and movies, making Netflix the only ad-supported streamer to offer downloads,” she writes.
On the marketer side, Reinhard elaborated on some of the offerings announced by Peter Naylor at Advertising Week New York in October, including single-show sponsorships and “binge” ads, which will offer users an ad-free episode of a series after having watched a few in a row.
Reinhard says Netflix is lining up sponsors for its Squid Game reality show and the final season of The Crown, after debuting the concept with SmartFood’s sponsorship of Love is Blind.
The company will also add “moment” sponsorships (built around local holidays or cultural events) as well as adding the ability to insert QR codes into creative, beginning next year.
“Our goal isn’t just to offer the same products and tools the industry has come to expect — although we’ve made a lot of progress on that front over the last year,” Reinhard writes. “It’s to build something bigger and better than what exists today.”
