Netflix scales its ad tier and picks Omnicom
The ad tier passes 250 million viewers and folds Acxiom data into Netflix targeting.
Mariano De Vitto · June 2026
Netflix said its ad-supported tier passed 250 million monthly active viewers, up from 190 million in November, sixty million in six months. It also signed its first deal with Omnicom Media, folding Acxiom data into Netflix targeting, starting in the United States with a global rollout planned by the end of 2026.
The scale and the deal point the same way: Netflix is building programmatic infrastructure rather than chasing AI creative tools. While YouTube leans into generated ads, Netflix is investing in data, targeting and measurement, the plumbing that lets agencies buy it like the rest of their digital plan. CTV ad conversions grew more than 200 percent year over year in the first quarter, so the demand is there.
Netflix has spent the past year signing measurement and demand partners rather than building creative tools, and the Omnicom deal is the clearest sign yet that it wants agencies to treat it as core programmatic inventory. The contrast with YouTube is the story: one platform automates the making of the ad, the other automates the buying and targeting of it. Most large advertisers will end up using both, which is why comparing them directly now is worth the effort.
Why a planner should care
A second large, biddable, data-rich streaming surface is good for buyers, because it adds competition to a market YouTube has dominated. The Omnicom and Acxiom tie-up means richer audience targeting on Netflix, with the usual tradeoff: more first-party and third-party data flowing into one platform's walls. Use the new scale to test Netflix against YouTube on the same campaign, and ask for independent measurement rather than relying only on the platform's own numbers.
Set up the comparison properly: same creative, same audience, same flight, split between Netflix and YouTube, and judge on incremental outcomes, not platform-reported reach. Push for third-party verification on both, and treat Netflix as a scaled buy now rather than an experiment, since the audience is already there.
The signal: A second biddable streaming giant is here. Test it head to head with YouTube, and insist on measurement the platform does not own.
The Signal Brief · Mariano De Vitto — Head of Marketing, Barcelona