What's Happening?
Netflix has unveiled a new metric called 'monthly active viewers' (MAV), which counts anyone who watches at least one minute of ads, multiplied by household viewers. This announcement, made on November 5, 2025, marks a shift from the previous ad-tier
monthly active users (MAUs) metric, which reported 94 million profiles in May. The MAV metric aims to capture co-viewing and live events, providing advertisers with a broader audience reach. This change is expected to reshape advertiser planning, as it offers a larger potential audience number compared to the old profile-based MAUs.
Why It's Important?
The introduction of the MAV metric is significant for advertisers as it redefines audience reach, potentially affecting pricing strategies and return on investment calculations. By capturing co-viewing and live events, Netflix offers advertisers a more comprehensive view of their audience, which could lead to recalibrations in media buying strategies. The shift from profile-based MAUs to viewer-focused MAVs highlights the evolving nature of streaming measurement and the need for standardized definitions across platforms. Advertisers may need to adjust their strategies to accommodate this new metric, which could influence the future of streaming ad impressions.
What's Next?
Advertisers and measurement vendors are likely to press for standardized definitions or cross-platform comparability following Netflix's introduction of the MAV metric. As Netflix continues to test new interactive ad formats with a global rollout planned for Q2 2026, advertisers will need to evaluate the impact of MAVs on their media buying strategies. The industry may see debates over the comparability of MAVs to legacy MAUs, with potential demands for third-party reconciliation. This shift could lead to more targeted ad experiments and interactive formats in the coming months.
Beyond the Headlines
Netflix's pivot to MAVs reflects broader industry moves to reconcile streaming reach and ad impressions. The metric highlights the importance of capturing real-world eyeballs on shared screens, particularly for big-event inventory like holiday sports and WWE programming. As streaming platforms continue to evolve, advertisers will need to adapt to new measurement standards and explore innovative ad formats to engage audiences effectively.
