What you need to know about Netflix Basic with Ads

The plan will be available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US. The launch will be staggered landing in Mexico and Canada on November 1 and will be available in the UK November 3.

The ad load will average four to five minutes per hour with the spot being either 15 or 30 seconds in length. Ads will play before and during series and films. Although new release films will only have pre-rolls but titles that have been on the services for a while have the potential to have mid-rolls. There will also be tight frequency caps - a common complaint with CTV advertising.

The streamer has signed up for Nielsen's digital ad ratings in the US from 2023 and will eventually be part of Nielsen's rebranded measurement tool Nielsen One. This comes after Netflix joined forces with the UK-leading currency Barb to be measured on par with the UK broadcasters.

The streamer also confirmed reports that it had tied with ad verification companies Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify to measure the views and traffic. Although measurement won't be integrated until Q1 2023 meaning its launch brands won't receive reporting from Netflix.

Netflix, through its ad partner Microsoft/Xandr, said it would offer broad targeting capabilities by country and genre. The streamer has not revealed if it will go deeper like age ratings, series or themes, which is a standard the CTV industry is currently calling for. There will also be targetting opportunities for its 'Top 10' programming list.

There will be some brand safety protection with advertisers being able to opt-out of having ads appear next to shows that don’t fit their brand, like sex nudity or graphic violence. Advertisers recently voiced concerns with The Drum over Netflix’s brand safety offering with one buyer claiming she would advise clients against a Netflix buy till it had proved it was a safe environment.

Microsoft's reputation for privacy sealed the deal for Netflix. In this vein, Netflix will only capture gender and date of birth at sign-up and said it would not be using that data at launch. It added that Microsoft will only be able to use the data and it will not build profiles for any other company.

The streamer is charging $65 CPM for serving ad impressions to 1,000 people and had put a $20m minimum spend. Marketers have taken umbrage at Netflix's fees especially commanding high rates before the proof of product. The Drum understands that the $65 is a launch price and that price would reduce after the rollout.

It will be fixed buying at launch but Netflix has indicated that this could also change to auction-based in the future.