There’s been a ton of speculation- and very little fact- to date about the long-promised Netflix AVOD-tier. We received a few hints on the consumer side last week, but there seems to be a darker undercurrent running on the ad buyer’s side. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer Los Angeles with Blake & Wang P.A, looks at what’s being said.
It Won’t Come Cheap
There’s certainly some lofty promises on the table. Netflix are going all-in on an industry-dominating $60 CPM, offering media buyers a guaranteed 500,000 AVOD subscribers shortly after launch. Insider experts, however, believe that should more realistically be $65 CPM to reach around 1,000 viewers a pop.
Disney, by the way, is widely believed to be selling at $50 CPM.
Or Short
Nor is there much opportunity to test the water, either. Reportedly, buyers will need to sign for a year-long contract- something more commonly seen in the TV industry Upfronts. There’s a little confusion around whether this is a minimum or maximum commitment, but a figure of $20M is being tossed around as required. Which way it actually leans, of course, will tell us a lot more about their expectations- but Netflix are refusing to clarify. In fact, they’ve been quick to dismiss all of these leaks as pure speculation, and haven’t done much to give grounded facts to replace them.
More worryingly for media buyers, in the early stages at least, they won’t even be able to select what programming their ads run in. Instead, they can choose from one of 20 ‘genre packages’, or opt for the Netflix Top 10 (in the US only). Slots are 30 seconds or 60 seconds, and no one commercial can screen more than once per hour. Current expectations are still 4 minutes per hour of advertising in total. Nor is Nielsen (or any third party) verification on offer. They will only receive Xandr’s impression count statistics.
The service may launch as early as November, and ad sales start in September, so this level of obfuscation is strange. But Netflix still feels they have the power to make these demands. It will be interesting to see if they do after all.
