Spencer Neumann

Netflix ended its first fiscal year with an ads business with a jump in year-over-year subscriber growth and, as a result, revenue.

Subscriber retention is trending on Netflix right now. Ads have become a key aspect of Netflix’s strategy to retain users by offering a lower-cost option – and, so far, the approach seems to be working.

Netflix gained roughly 6 million subscribers this quarter, mostly thanks to anti-password sharing. But advertising remains only a tiny piece of the business.

Weeks ahead of its first-ever upfront, Netflix is making programmatic strides with a private marketplace and enforcing anti-password sharing.

Although Netflix lost roughly 1 million users in Q2, the streaming giant gained 2.4 million subs in Q3, which helped boost the company’s revenue by 6% year over year. The question is: What happens to Netflix’s subscriber count when it flips the switch on ads in less than two weeks?