A year ago, the launch of Netflix and Disney+’s ad-supported streamers came with high prices for advertisers who were willing to pay top dollar to reach consumers watching original, polished entertainment.
The cost of streaming ads has since come down as more streamers have released a flood of new ad space, while advertiser demand remains sluggish due to an uncertain economy. The number of ads per hour on streamers including Hulu and Disney+ also has crept up, adding to the supply. (Check out last year’s list of streaming TV ad prices here.)
Netflix and Disney+ also have slashed their ad prices since launch. Netflix has cut its rates by about 30% from its initial CPM rate of up to $65, buyers previously told Business Insider. CPMs, or cost per mille, is what advertisers pay per thousand views of their ads.
The launch of ads on Prime Video early next year is also impacting pricing, as Amazon has promised to dump a TV-sized audience of 115 million monthly US users into the streaming video ad supply. Unlike Netflix’s first forays into advertising, consumers will have to opt out and pay an additional $2.99 if they don’t want to see Prime Video ads, giving advertisers a large audience to target.
All this has added up to a widespread discounting environment that one top ad buyer likened to a “Black Friday of deals.”
A second top ad buyer estimated that streaming ad prices have come down 5% to 10% over the past year as more ad space gets rolled out.
“There is absolutely inventory to buy,” said the ad buyer.
The pricing market is still divided between newer streamers like Netflix, Disney+, and Max on the high end that are known for prestige original content and light ad loads; more established options like Hulu and YouTube; and the fast-growing FASTs (free, ad-supported streaming TV channels), known for older TV shows and movies.
But the market is evening out as advertisers begin to spread their ad dollars across new services and the lower-priced FAST channels.
Business Insider surveyed buyers at seven different agencies about what the top AVODs charge now. The agencies range from small independents to big holding companies, which are able to negotiate lower rates based on volume.
We used the common ad-buying metric of CPM and the dollar ranges cited reflect basic pricing and don’t account for deals, sponsorships and other special ad products, or fees that advertisers typically pay to target and measure ads and which can add as much as 30% to the cost.
Read about the prices at each streamer, listed alphabetically.
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