Buyers aren’t exactly won over by Netflix’s new monthly active viewers (MAV) metric

MAVs, Netflix believes, is a better reflection of how many people in a typical household are watching the streaming platform in the living room, rather than determining active viewers by the number of accounts. The math behind MAVs, according to the platform: subscribers who have watched at least one minute of ads on the platform each month, multiplied by the estimated average of people in a household. 

The metric may smooth some conversation around audience behavior, but it’s not changing how buyers evaluate Netflix as an ad platform. The metric isn’t even something they can transact against, which limits its practical value for now. 

Collective Measures’ brand media supervisor Ben Vaske, for example, said he’s not surprised Netflix is trying to account for co-viewing impressions, because they’re taking a page out of the network TV playbook that used co-viewing as a way to mitigate ratings erosion.

“Co-viewing counting methodology has always been shaky, but without sharing specifics around how their measurement accounts for multiple viewers watching the same screen, they are leaving the door open to scrutiny and criticism,” he said.

Similarly, Brenda Imeson, strategy director at Brave Bison noted that reach may seem greater than it actually is as Netflix is multiplying individual viewers by an estimated household size based on their own research. In other words, marketers don’t have the ability to verify the data with third parties.

“It is hard to verify as it’s based on their own internal research, which cannot be audited independently,” said Imeson. “The engagement element of the metric is set at an extremely low bar. The ‘at least one minute of ads’ is a very minimal threshold. Someone could watch two, 30-second ads and count for the entire month.”

Marketers are being asked to rely on a modeled average of how many people are watching rather than verified individual viewing — an approach that echoes a legacy that many marketers were already working to move beyond. 

“Sometimes multiple people are going to be watching, but there’s no standardization or confidence that they are doing it accurately or how they know who these people are using one account,” said Markacy’s co-founder and co-CEO Tucker Matheson.

There’s also the issue of comparability. MAV is unique to Netflix, and most advertisers buy across several streaming platforms. Introducing a metric others don’t use makes clean comparisons — and growth tracing — significantly tougher. 

“Considering advertisers on Netflix are also working with a portfolio of streaming platforms, which do not use Netflix’s co-viewing measurement, MAV loses its utility,” said Vaske.

That’s the telemetry marketers crave — and increasingly need to justify their ad spending.

“It is hard to verify as it’s based on their own internal research, which cannot be audited independently,” said Imeson. “The engagement element of the metric is set at an extremely low bar. The ‘at least one minute of ads’ is a very minimal threshold. Someone could watch two, 30-second ads and count for the entire month.”

That clarity is what buyers say they need to justify spending.

Or as Markacy’s co-founder and co-CEO Tucker Matheson put it: “CPMs are likely getting chopped up over a wider net of people, and there is no real clarity around how one member versus two viewers is effecting delivery, targeting and CPMs.”

While Netflix’s former monthly active users (MAUs) metric might have been universal, Netflix considers MAVs to be specific to each country. Which is why the platform still provides third-party reach numbers in countries where it’s available, along with a broad base of third-party measurement partners across Netflix’s 12 markets. 

For now, marketers are waiting — and pushing for more concrete, verifiable signals before they commit more budget. 

“Netflix CPMs are astronomically high, and multi-household viewership is not a priority metric when determining media plans (CPM is),” said Power Digital’s chief strategy officer Ben Dutter. To be clear: when Netflix launched its ad business, CPMs debuted around $65. Now, they sit around $30.

Even Brainlabs’ managing director of programmatic Liz DeAngelis, said it largely doesn’t change spending habits for her team.

“I’m less interested in how many MAUs or MAVs Netflix claims to have because of how unlikely it is that we would max out our reach on Netflix. I’m looking for “does my target audience spend time watching Netflix and is it ad-supported?’ to drive my investment decisions.”