Streaming Services Added 18% More Ad Time This Year, Ampere Finds

Major U.S. streaming services raised their average ad loads by 18% between January and August, according to Ampere Analysis research first shared by Business Insider and reported Tuesday by Android Authority. Amazon’s Prime Video was the only major service to cut back, going from 2.78 ad minutes per hour in January to 2.60 in August.

Paramount+ carries the heaviest load, at 9.01 minutes of ads per hour, up from 7.87 at the start of the year. That works out to roughly 15% of an hour of viewing. Netflix posted the biggest percentage increase, 74%, going from 1.40 minutes per hour to 2.44, and it still shows the fewest ads of the major services. The figures are averages for users on ad-supported tiers.

“Once you reach scale, ad-supported tiers are more lucrative than ad-free tiers,” Brandon Katz, an analyst at Greenlight Analytics, said, according to Android Authority.

Ad-free plans cost more

The extra ad time comes as ad-free plans get pricier. Netflix’s ad-free plan now costs $19.99 a month, or $26.99 for 4K HDR, more than double the $7.99 it charged when its standalone streaming service launched in 2010, The Verge reported in June. Disney+, which launched ad-free at $6.99, now costs $18.99 without commercials. Among services that offer both kinds of plans, nearly half of current U.S. subscribers are on the tier with ads, according to Antenna research cited by The Verge.

Ampere expects ad-supported tiers to account for 54% of subscription streaming revenue in North America by year-end, with advertising alone topping $18 billion, more than a fifth of subscription OTT revenue for the first time, TV Tech reported in August. Prime Video leads that market, with ad-tier revenue expected to exceed $14 billion this year. Procter & Gamble, Amazon and Walmart accounted for 22% of U.S. subscription OTT ad impressions so far in 2026.

“Advertising has become a fundamental part of streamers’ business models, changing both how success is measured and the content they commission,” Ampere research manager Rory Gooderick said.

Netflix made more than $1.5 billion from advertising in 2025 and is targeting $3 billion this year, the company said in January, according to Marketing Dive. “We’re also offering advertisers a wider array of ads formats, so more ads products, enhanced interactivity, which should improve outcomes,” co-CEO Greg Peters said on the earnings call.