Netflix announced that it created interactive mid-roll ads and pause ads that incorporate generative AI, which subscribers can expect to start seeing in 2026. The company initially started testing pause ads in July 2024.
Netflix launched its ad subscription tier in November 2022, which now has 94M subscribers, or roughly a third of its 300M total subscribers. The company also said that half of new subscribers are opting for the $8/month ad-supported tier rather than its ad-free subscriptions, which begin at $18/month.
The new ad formats follow Netflix's launch of its own in-house advertising platform in the US in April, which it had previously debuted in Canada and plans to expand globally by June. Netflix says its advertising business is in the early stages and that it expects to double its advertising revenue in 2025. Yay for subscribers!
Meanwhile, YouTube introduced a new ad format called “Peak Points,” which leverages Google's Gemini AI to analyze YouTube videos and identify moments it believes have the highest viewer engagement or are most emotionally impactful, and then suggests placing the ad right after it.
Peak Points aims to piss off viewers benefit advertisers by grabbing users' attention right when they're most invested in the content, similar to a strategy called emotional-based targeting, where advertisers place ads that align with the emotions evoked by the video.
YouTube also debuted a shoppable product feed where users can browser and purchase items during an ad.
Remember when streaming videos on the Internet used to be fun?