Netflix has announced it will roll out AI-generated advertising — including the dreaded pause ads — in the middle of its programming on the ad-supported tier from 2026.
The news, which was reported by Media Play News, doesn’t specify how the company will target the viewer for these ads; will they be individualized based on watch history? On whatever the viewer is watching at the time? At this point, we know next to nothing about how the ads will work on the backend, or even how they will be presented. But they are coming.
President of advertising Amy Reinhard recently revealed that the company sees its effort as a merging of the things Netflix excels in. “Either they have great technology, or they have great entertainment,” she explained at the recent Upfront for advertisers event in New York City. “Our superpower has always been the fact that we have both.”
The exec added: “When you compare us to our competitors, attention starts higher and ends much higher. And even more impressive, members pay as much attention to mid-roll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves.”
Reinhard revealed ad-supported tier subscribers watch an average of 41 hours of Netflix per month, which, Kotaku worked out, equates to roughly three hours of ads per month for those viewers. That’s a lot even if the ads aren’t AI. But in 2026, they will be.
Netflix has yet to give an official date for the change to be implemented.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
