Global economic turbulence has thrown advertisers a curveball, and there are widespread expectations of a spending slowdown on the horizon. But not at Netflix—yet.
“We aren’t currently seeing any signs of softness from our direct interactions with [ad] buyers,” co-CEO Greg Peters told investors Thursday during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “Actually, to the opposite—we’re seeing some positive indicators from clients as we approach our upfront event.”
In the quarter, the streamer, which is weeks away from hosting its third upfronts event for advertisers in May, posted a 13% jump in quarterly revenue, beating analyst expectations. But it’s also the first quarter that it did not report subscriber numbers, making it difficult to better understand what those revenue figures mean—and if consumers are starting to drop monthly Netflix subscriptions amid broader economic headwinds and after several price hikes in recent years.
Still, Netflix touted its efforts to grow its advertising business and its upcoming content slate as the business’s biggest strengths.
All about ads: Peters credited Netflix’s resilience in part to the “accessible price point” of its ad-supported tier, which costs $7.99/month ($10 less than its least-expensive ad-free subscription). The size of Netflix’s ad business compared to the size of digital media spending—which the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimated reached $259 billion last year—is another factor, he added.
“We’re currently relatively small in ads as a revenue contributor to Netflix, but probably more importantly, the amount of ad spend that we’re seeking to win relative to the big ads pie,” Peters said. “That smallness probably provides us some insulation to market shifts right now."
With that said, the streamer expects to roughly double ad revenue in 2025—and its ad-tech capabilities are central to that plan. Last year, Canada became the first Netflix market to rely entirely on the streamer’s own in-house ad tech. The streamer introduced it in the US this month, and plans to bring it to its 10 other markets in coming months, Peters told investors. The ad tech is aimed at enabling Netflix to roll out new ad formats and more targeting and programmatic capabilities, he said.
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Gimme more: Netflix’s live events strategy, which has been primarily focused on sports but has also included live comedy events like The Roast of Tom Brady and the live talk show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, remains unchanged, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the call Thursday. After seeing overall success with livestreamed sporting events like its Christmas Day NFL games and the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match, it’s laying the groundwork for repeats. A livestreamed match between boxing champions Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano is slated to air in July. This Christmas, it’s also planning to stream additional NFL games.
As its live capabilities grow, Sarandos said the company is looking for global opportunities. “Our live adventures have all been primarily in the US, but we intend to grow the capability to do it around the world in the years ahead,” he said.
The company is also eyeing other programming options, including, perhaps, video podcasts, which are seeing their popularity soar on YouTube and Spotify. Sarandos said that he “suspect[s] you’ll see some of them find their way to Netflix.”
The company is also evaluating the ways in which it can work with creators in some way—including those who call YouTube, the largest streaming platform in the US that’s increasingly viewed on TV screens, home.
“When it comes to the specific head-to-head competition with YouTube or other platforms like YouTube, we believe we are a more competitive, better service for a certain class of creators and certain types of storytelling,” Peters said. “Most importantly in that is that we lead monetization for those kinds of titles, and that means we can provide a better opportunity than YouTube or other services for those creators and those stories.”