New audience metric, Monthly Active Viewers introduced by Netflix

Netflix has introduced a new audience metric called Monthly Active Viewers (MAV), which it says more accurately reflects the true scale of its ad-supported viewership.

“We define MAV as members who have watched at least 1 minute of ads on Netflix per month, and multiply that by the estimated average number of people within a household, which we get from Netflix first-party research.”

The company said its ads now reach over 190 million Monthly Active Viewers globally, including 4 million in Australia, marking a milestone for Netflix’s growing advertising business, which now spans 12 ad-supported markets and includes thousands of advertisers worldwide.

Under the new framework, Netflix defines a Monthly Active Viewer as a member who watches at least one minute of ads per month, multiplied by the average number of people in a household — data derived from Netflix’s firstparty research.

The change moves Netflix beyond its previous account-based metric, which didn’t capture multiple household viewers

“Just as there’s no universal streaming metric for viewing, there’s no industry standard for ad reach,” the company said. “MAV provides a more complete and transparent picture for our advertisers.”

Netflix has now implemented its proprietary Netflix Ads Suite, a first-party ad tech platform, across all adsupported markets. The platform integrates with major programmatic partners including Amazon, AJA, Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo DSP.

Netflix is also scaling Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) across its line-up of live events.