The news: Netflix is using live events to give its flagging ad business a boost.

Netflix said Q4 will be its “biggest quarterly live slate to date,” per its Q3 earnings, including the NFL’s inaugural Thanksgiving Eve game, two NFL games on Christmas Day, and a boxing match between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

But Netflix also revised its 2026 ad revenue forecast down from $3 billion to $2.7 billion due to a “slower than expected rollout” of some of its ad products and features.

Why it matters: Making live events a core streaming offering alongside TV and film could help Netflix attract ad spending and improve time spent—appointment viewing creates opportunities that are difficult to replicate with on-demand programming.

Concerns about lower-than-expected 2026 ad revenues are amplified by Netflix’s user engagement difficulties. Viewing hours grew just 2% in Q2 2026. (Netflix did not disclose Q3 viewing hours.) Bloomberg previously reported that viewership for Netflix originals drops significantly after the first season. Netflix’s time spent and US viewership growth are also anemic in our forecasts.