Netflix Is Seeking Top Rates for Advertising, but Madison Avenue Isn’t Too Impressed — Yet
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS is out; Netflix is in. Nothing encapsulates the tumult in television these days more than the fact that CBS, one of the pillars of network television, has decided not to attend the industry’s traditional upfront week — when media giants make glitzy programming presentations to prospective advertisers — while Netflix will make its debut.
A year ago, when Netflix announced it would launch a subscriber tier supported by advertising, it was a seismic event in the history of the industry’s leading streamer.
But so far, there’s been no quaking on Madison Avenue. Five executives familiar with recent negotiations between advertisers and media companies say the Netflix offering is not likely to play a significant role in the industry’s next upfront market, when media companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for the coming season.
Netflix’s ad-supported tier, which debuted in the U.S. in November, doesn’t have enough subscribers to generate the sizable crowds that blue-chip advertisers demand. “Our move into advertising is pretty modest in terms of crawl, walk, run — and we’re definitely in the crawl phase,” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, says.
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