Ampere Analysis expects ad-supported tiers to generate more than $45 billion in North America in 2026, representing 54% of total subscription-streaming revenue in the region. Advertising alone will contribute more than $18 billion, crossing 20% of subscription OTT revenue for the first time. Streaming services can now monetize the same household through a recurring fee and an ongoing supply of ad impressions, giving engagement, inventory quality and advertising yield a larger role in the economics of every viewing hour.
The ad tier has become the scale product
North America accounts for nearly 60% of global ad-supported subscription OTT revenue, supported by higher subscription ARPUs, stronger CPMs, mature connected-TV advertising infrastructure and greater consumer acceptance of ads. Globally, ad-supported tiers already represented 28% of streaming revenue in 2025. North America reaching 54% a year later shows how quickly the revenue mix can change once a mature subscriber base meets a functioning premium-video ad market.
The economics favor segmentation. Ad-supported plans capture price-sensitive households while adding advertising revenue to the subscription fee. Ad-free plans can then serve viewers willing to pay a premium to remove advertising. Amazon has taken that logic furthest by making ads the default Prime Video experience and charging members who want to remove them. In April, the US ad-free option became Prime Video Ultra at $4.99 per month, up from the original $2.99 surcharge.
Ampere expects revenue tied to Prime Video’s ad-supported offering in North America to exceed $14 billion this year, giving Amazon the largest position in the region. The forced migration gave Prime Video immediate advertising scale without requiring subscribers to actively select a discounted tier. Amazon has continued expanding Prime Video advertising into additional international markets, extending the same inventory strategy beyond North America.
That structure also connects directly to Amazon’s broader advertising business. Amazon’s streaming strategy increasingly sits inside a larger advertising and commerce engine, allowing Prime Video viewing to support an advertising operation that already spans retail media, connected devices and commerce signals.
Netflix is building toward the same dual-revenue objective through a different customer proposition. It continues to use a cheaper ad-supported plan to attract members rather than automatically moving the base into advertising. Netflix now expects roughly $3 billion in advertising revenue during 2026, about double its 2025 total, while expanding programmatic access, Pause Ads, live inventory and its in-house Netflix Ads Suite. Advertising has moved deeper into Netflix’s core product and monetization model as the company increases the number of ways buyers can access and measure its inventory.
Engagement now produces inventory with a measurable financial value
Ampere’s content data shows the six largest global streaming services doubled first-run and renewal orders for unscripted programming in North America between 2020 and 2025. Regular releases and repeatable formats can create habitual viewing, giving services a steadier supply of monetizable impressions than a slate dominated by titles consumed in short bursts.
That changes the financial utility of programming. A title can contribute through acquisition and retention while also generating sellable inventory over a longer viewing cadence. Netflix’s own 2026 disclosures show how those objectives are converging. Live programming represents just over 5% of its expected content spend and roughly 1% of viewing hours this year, yet live events accounted for six of the company’s 10 strongest new-member sign-up days over the past five years. Netflix also says advertisers are showing strong demand for its growing live lineup.
Sports, reality, competition formats, talk, live events and other recurring programming consequently carry more ways to earn a return. The economics increasingly reward content that creates predictable appointments and repeated usage, especially when those viewing hours can command premium pricing or improve the service’s upfront proposition.
Retail advertisers are pulling streaming closer to commerce
Procter & Gamble, Amazon and Walmart have accounted for 22% of US subscription OTT advertising impressions so far in 2026, according to Ampere. The concentration places consumer goods and retail companies at the center of streaming’s advertising expansion.
Amazon and Walmart also have businesses built around purchase data and advertising, increasing the pressure on streaming inventory to demonstrate outcomes beyond traditional reach metrics. Their expansion into streaming advertising connects premium video with retail-media economics, where identity, attribution and purchase behavior can make an impression more valuable than undifferentiated TV reach.
That pushes streaming services toward better targeting, measurement and transaction infrastructure. Netflix is automating more of its campaign workflow and expanding programmatic access specifically to make inventory available to a broader range of buyers. Disney, meanwhile, is working to connect Disney+ more tightly to consumer data and the rest of its business, with management positioning the service as the digital center of a broader relationship spanning content, merchandise, games and other experiences.
North America’s revenue mix raises the operating requirements for everyone else
Ampere estimates that global subscription streaming revenue reached $157.1 billion in 2025, up 14%, while the share associated with ad-supported tiers climbed from less than 5% in 2020 to 28%. Price increases, international expansion and advertising all contributed to that growth. North America’s 54% forecast shows how much further the hybrid model can develop once subscriber growth becomes harder to produce through household additions alone.
Services competing for the same viewing time now need advertising capabilities capable of supporting the content investment. Ad sales, programmatic distribution, measurement, targeting, forecasting, frequency management and inventory design increasingly sit inside the core streaming P&L. A service with comparable subscription scale but weaker advertising yield has fewer ways to monetize each hour of engagement.
Disney’s current inventory position illustrates the other side of the equation. The company is evaluating additional ways to expand ad-supported reach as its existing streaming inventory sells strongly, creating an incentive to generate more monetizable viewing without simply increasing ad load for current subscribers. A potential free Disney streaming product would expand that inventory pool while also creating another entry point into Disney’s paid streaming ecosystem.
The Streaming Wars Take
Programming capital now has to clear a broader monetization hurdle. Services need content that attracts and retains subscribers while producing enough repeatable, measurable viewing to support advertising demand. That increases the financial utility of live events, sports, unscripted franchises and other formats capable of generating predictable viewing occasions across the calendar.
The gap will widen between services that simply carry ads and companies that can price, target, sell and measure those impressions at scale. Amazon brings commerce data and an enormous advertising operation. Netflix is investing aggressively in its own ad technology and buying infrastructure. Disney can connect streaming audiences to a wider portfolio of consumer relationships. Those capabilities determine how much revenue each company can extract from the same hour of viewing.
Subscriber count remains important, but the economic unit underneath it has expanded. A North American streaming customer can now produce subscription revenue, advertising revenue and, in some businesses, commerce value at the same time. At 54% of regional revenue, the ad tier has become the operating model around which content, pricing and advertising investment increasingly have to be built.
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