Netflix Launches 'Monthly Active Viewers' Metric

Streaming pioneer Netflix has unveiled a new metric, 'Monthly Active Viewers' or MAVs, approximating the number of people reached by its ads.

The firm measures the number of user accounts that have watched at least one minute of ad-supported programming during a month, then multiplies this by a figure for the average number of people in a household, derived from its own internal research. The firm said in a statement this will provide 'a more comprehensive count' of how many people are watching content on the platform, and published an October total of 190 million MAVs.

The company is rolling out its dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technology before Christmas, in six countries: the US, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico and the UK. This allows the company to run selected ads for each viewer in real time during a live stream. Co-CEO Greg Peters says the quarter was the firm's best ever for ad revenue, and that while the latter is still small compared to subscription revenue, the 'fundamentals' of the new model are now established, paving the way for growth.

In a web site post, Netflix Advertising President Amy Reinhard (pictured) said the new metric 'truly reflects the scale of our ads business,' and explained: 'Our previous measurement - which was based on account profiles - didn't represent all of the engaged people who are in the room watching.'