How much advertising do Netflix and Co show?

Almost every streaming service now offers advertising-financed subscription models. But the amount of advertising within individual series episodes varies significantly depending on the platform, new results show.

Whether Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+: Most streaming services offer a particularly affordable subscription model that includes advertising. Sherwood magazine in the USA carried out a random study of how often and how long these commercial breaks are.

Sherwood analyzed two episodes of currently popular series on six streaming services. The number of commercial breaks, the number of minutes of these breaks and what percentage of the total length of the series episode the advertising made up were noted.

Only two of the streaming services reviewed are currently available in Germany or have an advertising model in this country: Netflix and Disney+.

Streaming services: Disney+ shows a lot of advertising, Netflix shows little

Disney+ had the highest advertising share, with 16 percent (“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew”) and 13 percent (“Simpsons”). The episode of “Skeleton Crew” was 32 minutes long and was interrupted three times by commercials. In total, the advert lasted over five minutes. The special episode of “The Simpsons”, length: 45 minutes, was also interrupted three times. Here the length of the advertisement was around six and a half minutes. In both cases, advertising was also shown before the episode started.

Netflix, on the other hand, showed the least advertising in the sample: only four percent (“Avatar: The Lord of the Elements”) and three percent (“La Palma”). The 43-minute episode of “Avatar” ran with two breaks and one minute and 42 seconds of advertising beforehand. The 50-minute episode of “La Palma” was only interrupted once; the advertising, including the preceding spot, lasted one minute and 17 seconds.

Both Disney+ and Netflix only ran external advertising and no self-advertising. The providers were therefore successful in marketing the advertising slots.

Analysis: Paramount+ with a lot of self-promotion

Things were different with the advertising model Paramount+ out of. There was quite a lot of advertising there: 15 percent for seven minutes (“Lioness”) and nine percent for around six minutes (“Landman”). However, only two of the 18 and 14 advertisements that ran in five and four advertising blocks, respectively, were from external brands. Paramount obviously had to fill a lot of gaps here with self-promotion.

The HBO streaming service Max from Warner Bros. Discovery had a moderate amount of advertising in the analysis. There were nine percent (“Big Bang Theory”) and seven percent (“Young Sheldon”) with two and one commercial breaks, respectively. WBD also didn’t have to advertise itself.

There is no advertising subscription to Paramount+ in Germany yet, but it is planned for this year. (HBO) Max, on the other hand, won’t be released until 2026. It remains to be seen whether there will be an advertising-financed model immediately.

And what about Amazon Prime Video? The service was not analyzed by Sherwood. The results cannot necessarily be transferred to Germany. However, they show that the length and number of commercial breaks can vary significantly depending on the streaming service.

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