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Netflix’s cheaper, ad-supported tier has amassed 40 million monthly active users globally, the company said on Wednesday.
That’s nearly double the 23 million number the streaming giant shared in January.
Separately, Netflix announced that it will launch its own advertising platform and will no longer partner with Microsoft on the technology. The tech giant will remain a programmatic advertising partner.
Netflix introduced the ad-supported plan in November 2022 as part of a broader effort to boost revenue amid slowing subscriber growth. This strategy included a password-sharing crackdown last year.
The company said on Wednesday that 40% of all subscriptions in countries with an available ad tier are for this cheaper plan. Netflix now has a total of 270 million subscribers.
The ad-level monthly active user numbers come just one month after Netflix told investors it would no longer provide quarterly updates to subscriber numbers. The company said at the time that it was generating significant profits and free cash flow and that its member numbers were not the only factor in the company’s growth. She said the scale lost its importance after it started offering multiple price points for membership.
The increase in ad tier users comes as the number of linear TV viewers shrinks and traditional media companies seek to gain a foothold in the streaming world. Netflix has established itself as a leader in this sector as many other companies struggle to make their streaming platforms profitable.
Its main competitors have far fewer subscribers than Netflix. In its first-quarter earnings report, Comcast said its streaming platform Peacock had 34 million subscribers.
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Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
