With Netflix new ad-free standard plan at $20, streaming's tipping point into old TV is getting closer

The Netflix logo on one of the company's buildings in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 20, 2026. Daniel Cole | Reuters Streaming companies are discovering that their most valuable customers may not be the ones paying the most. Instead, it's increasingly the viewers who watch the most. The change is being driven by a move away from a subscription-only model to one that combines subscription fees with advertising. Because ads are sold based on viewership, the more time a subscriber spends watching, the more revenue that viewer generates. In March, Netflix raised prices for the second time in just over a year, pushing its standard ad-free plan to around $20 a month , versus an ad-supported tier at $9, signaling that how much a subscriber watches may matter as much if not more than what they pay upfront. "It's a double payday," said Kevin Krim, president and CEO of EDO, a company that measures the impact of advertising across streaming and linear TV. "As long as the ad-tier subscriber is engaged with the content and the ads, they will be at least as valuable or more than ad-free subscribers," Krim said. After years of resisting advertising, Netflix is now leaning heavily into that model , rapidly building out its advertising business alongside subscriptions. "We're making good progress, and the opportunity ahead of us is massive," Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said after the company's latest earnings report. …