The news: Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier now reaches 250 million global users, the company announced at its Wednesday Upfront presentation, up from 94 million last year. (Netflix stopped reporting subscription numbers in Q1 2025.)

Its ad-supported tier will debut in 15 new countries this year.

Netflix also secured another five NFL games, including a Thanksgiving game the company had been publicly gunning for and a Week 1 match in Australia.

Other announcements included an aggressive push into advertising across new content formats. Ads will soon come to its recently launched vertical video feed, as well as its video podcasts—though it’s unclear whether ad-free subscribers will be exposed to these ads. New personalization tools will also debut to improve contextual targeting.

Zooming out: Though it is the leader among subscription video-on-demand services, Netflix’s nascent ad business lags behind competitors—Amazon Prime Video will generate $3.03 billion in US ad revenues this year against Netflix’s $2.42 billion, per our forecast.

An advertising debut for its vertical video and podcasting content was inevitable, and the widening chasm between ad-supported and ad-free subscription costs clearly signals the company’s shift in priorities.

The NFL strategy: Netflix wasn’t alone in boasting new NFL rights; other broadcasters and streamers like Fox also secured more games. But Netflix is taking a different approach from many of its competitors.

Major NFL-streaming partnerships like YouTube’s Sunday Ticket and Amazon’s Thursday Night Football are up for renewal, and Disney is likely using its partnership with the NFL a play to swing a more robust rights package. Netflix, on the other hand, is focused on games it can package as blockbuster events—a far cheaper strategy than spending tens of billions on full-season rights.

Co-CEO Greg Peters said in October that the company is not interested in a full rights package but instead wants individual games it can “eventize.”

That strategy has paid off for Netflix and other others:

• Netflix’s 2025 Christmas day NFL broadcast was the most-streamed NFL game in history, per Nielsen.
• And the Super Bowl helped NBCUniversal secure an eye-popping 135.3% increase in domestic ad revenues last quarter (though the Olympics also contributed).

Implications for marketers: New NFL inventory and a platter of new ad surfaces will encourage advertisers to keep spending on Netflix.

While football is a surefire bet for more viewership and ad spending, its vertical video and podcasting push may be slower to yield results. While video podcast viewership is popular, its ad strength is still unclear, and it may take time to get Netflix users adjusted to vertical video viewing habits.