Netflix inventory today became available to every buyer using The Trade Desk's Sellers and Publishers 500+ marketplace, removing the private-deal requirement that had governed access to the streaming service since it entered programmatic advertising in 2024. The change, published on The Trade Desk's platform resources page on July 20, 2026, folds Netflix into an always-on inventory pool that buyers can reach without a minimum spend, a separate integration, or any change to their existing campaign workflow.

The mechanics are narrow but consequential. Until now, advertisers wanting to place ads against Netflix content through The Trade Desk had two options: programmatic guaranteed deals, in which volume and price are fixed in advance, or 1:1 private marketplace arrangements negotiated between buyer and seller. Both require direct engagement and, typically, scale commitments that smaller advertisers cannot meet. According to The Trade Desk, Netflix's inclusion in the Sellers and Publishers 500+ replaces that gated model with what the company calls always-on marketplace deals, accessible through the same controls buyers already operate inside Kokai, the company's programmatic buying platform.

What changed and what stayed the same

The Sellers and Publishers 500+ is The Trade Desk's curated inventory marketplace, positioned by the company as a route to what it describes as the best of the open internet across connected TV, premium video, news, audio, and sports. Netflix now sits inside that pool alongside other media companies. According to The Trade Desk, selecting Sellers and Publishers 500+ in Kokai grants expanded access to Netflix's streaming environment automatically, with the company stating plainly that there is "no minimum spend or change to your workflow required to reach Netflix inventory."

The activation path runs through Kokai's Forward, or FWD, tile. Buyers locate the Marketplace Summary, select Edit, and choose Sellers and Publishers 500+ to fold Netflix and the wider scaled marketplace into their targeting. Deal and marketplace settings remain available for buyers who want to refine inventory selection further. The Trade Desk directs users to its Knowledge Portal, which requires a platform login, for a detailed walk-through.

What did not change is the underlying commercial relationship between the two companies. Netflix has not withdrawn its private-deal options; rather, it has added a third, lower-friction path on top of them. The distinction matters for how the streaming service manages inventory value. Programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace deals let sellers control price floors and buyer identity tightly. An always-on marketplace inclusion trades some of that control for reach and transaction volume, a calculation that has become central to Netflix's advertising strategy as it pushes programmatic buying toward the majority of its non-live business.

The scale claim

According to The Trade Desk, the inclusion gives buyers access to Netflix's more than 250 million global monthly active users. That figure aligns with the audience number Netflix itself presented at its 2026 advertising upfront on May 13, 2026, when the company put its global monthly ad-supported reach at 250 million viewers and outlined a slate that included AI agents to manage and purchase ads and fifteen new advertising markets. The 250 million figure represents individual viewers within ad-supported households rather than subscriber accounts, a measurement distinction Netflix has emphasised as it courts advertisers accustomed to person-level reach metrics from television.

The audience scale sits against a backdrop of aggressive revenue targets. Netflix has spent 2026 chasing roughly $3 billion in advertising revenue for the year, nearly double the approximately $1.5 billion it generated in 2025. That $1.5 billion itself represented a third consecutive year of more than 2.5-times revenue growth. Two days before The Trade Desk's marketplace update, Netflix reported second-quarter revenue of $12.56 billion, a 13.4 percent year-over-year gain that fell just short of its own guidance and sent shares down roughly 8 percent. The advertising arm, by contrast, held its $3 billion pace, and the company flagged new programmatic access to Pause Ads and live sports inventory as arriving this summer.

Why the model shift matters

The removal of a spend floor changes who can buy Netflix inventory, not just how. Direct-negotiated deals favour large advertisers and agencies with the budgets and account relationships to command a seat at the table. An always-on marketplace, by design, admits smaller and mid-sized buyers who transact through standard programmatic workflows. Netflix's own framing in recent earnings materials pointed in this direction: management has described automating the transactional workflow to reduce the manual effort that historically limited access for smaller buyers.

That structural shift is already visible in Netflix's disclosures. The company told investors on its first-quarter 2026 earnings call that programmatic buying was on course to become more than 50 percent of its non-live advertising business, a change built incrementally since 2024. Netflix confirmed more than 4,000 active advertisers on the platform in the first quarter, a 70 percent year-over-year increase. Each reduction in buying friction widens the funnel of advertisers who can participate, and marketplace inclusion is among the most direct levers available.

For The Trade Desk, the addition strengthens the value proposition of its curated marketplace at a moment when the independent demand-side platform faces mounting competitive pressure. Amazon has undercut The Trade Desk on fees, with its ad sales fees of roughly 1 percent standing far below the 12 to 15 percent range that investment bank Needham and Co. attributed to The Trade Desk. Being the marketplace where premium streaming inventory becomes broadly accessible, without the friction of private deals, is one way an independent platform defends its position against integrated rivals that pair first-party commerce data with owned inventory.

How Netflix built to this point

Netflix's arrival in the always-on marketplace is the latest step in a programmatic build-out that has run continuously for more than two years. The company opened its ad inventory to The Trade Desk, Google's Display and Video 360, and Magnite in May 2024, ending a period in which Microsoft had been its sole ad-technology partner. In August 2024, Netflix reported a 150 percent increase in upfront commitments compared with 2023, closing deals across the major holding companies.

The infrastructure deepened through 2025. Campaign Manager 360 added Netflix Ads integration and cross-media TV measurement in February 2025. In April 2025, Netflix launched its proprietary Netflix Ads Suite in the United States, severing its dependence on Microsoft's ad technology. The company added Yahoo DSP as a fourth global programmatic partner in June 2025, the same month Netflix ads became available on The Trade Desk platform in Japan. A July 2025 EMEA targeting release brought mood targeting, postal-code precision, and more than 100 interest segments.

Amazon joined the roster later. Netflix became available in Amazon DSP starting in the fourth quarter of 2025, and the relationship deepened when Amazon Audiences, built from Amazon's shopping, streaming, and browsing signals, reached Netflix inventory in the United States during the second quarter of 2026 and extended across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa on May 18, 2026. Netflix's programmatic partner set now spans The Trade Desk, Google DV360, Magnite, Microsoft, Yahoo DSP, and Amazon DSP.

Kokai and the marketplace context

The update arrives through Kokai, The Trade Desk's programmatic platform launched in 2023 and the subject of a prolonged migration that has generated friction among traders. The company reported that Kokai handled activity from nearly 85 percent of clients by late 2025, with complete migration targeted for year-end. The platform's development has been steady but contested: The Trade Desk partially sunset the Kokai periodic table interface in September 2025 following sustained criticism from programmatic professionals over campaign-management efficiency.

The Sellers and Publishers 500+ marketplace has featured in The Trade Desk's product messaging for over a year. When the company launched Deal Desk in June 2025, it described the Sellers and Publishers 500 Plus as a premium marketplace to which its AI would direct buyers seeking alternatives when existing deals underperformed. The Q2 2026 Kokai release formalised programmatic access to connected-TV pause ads within Kokai and brought the upgraded Deal Desk into open beta. Netflix's marketplace inclusion extends that trajectory of moving premium, previously gated inventory into standard buying paths.

That pattern is not unique to Netflix. In June 2026, Samsung opened its Smart TV home screens to programmatic buyingvia The Trade Desk and Google DV360, another instance of premium, hard-to-access inventory surfacing on the demand-side platforms buyers already use. The consistent direction across these moves is the progressive connection of high-value inventory categories to the infrastructure buyers operate daily, reducing the negotiation overhead that once separated the most desirable placements from routine campaign activation.

What the announcement does not say

The Trade Desk's update carries no pricing detail, no disclosure of how Netflix inventory inside the marketplace will be priced relative to its private-deal equivalents, and no data on the volume of Netflix impressions that will flow through the always-on channel. Nor does it specify which Netflix ad formats are included in the marketplace pool or whether the live sports and pause-ad inventory Netflix has flagged for this summer will be reachable through the same route. The document confines itself to the access mechanism: what buyers can now reach, and how.

The absence of financial terms is standard for a platform product update rather than a corporate disclosure, and neither company has attached a spend commitment or revenue projection to the marketplace inclusion specifically. What the update establishes is a change in access architecture. Netflix inventory, once reachable only through negotiated deals, now sits inside a standing marketplace pool that any Kokai buyer can select. The commercial consequences of that shift will surface in the transaction data over subsequent quarters rather than in the announcement itself.

Timeline

  • May 16, 2024: Netflix opens its ad inventory to The Trade Desk, Google DV360, and Magnite, entering programmatic advertising
  • August 2024: Netflix reports a 150 percent increase in upfront commitments versus 2023
  • February 2025: Campaign Manager 360 adds Netflix Ads integration and cross-media TV measurement
  • April 2025: Netflix launches its proprietary Netflix Ads Suite in the United States
  • June 9, 2025: The Trade Desk launches Deal Desk, referencing Sellers and Publishers 500 Plus as a premium marketplace
  • June 16, 2025: Netflix ads become available on The Trade Desk platform in Japan; Yahoo DSP added as fourth global partner
  • July 2025: Netflix launches advanced EMEA targeting including mood targeting and postal-code precision
  • September 2025: The Trade Desk partially sunsets the Kokai periodic table interface after trader criticism
  • Q4 2025: Netflix becomes available in Amazon DSP
  • May 13, 2026: Netflix's 2026 upfront presents 250 million monthly viewers, AI agents, and fifteen new ad markets
  • May 16, 2026: The Trade Desk's Q2 Kokai updates formalise CTV pause ads and open-beta Deal Desk
  • May 18, 2026: Amazon Audiences reaches Netflix inventory across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
  • June 2026: Samsung opens Smart TV home screens to programmatic via The Trade Desk and DV360
  • July 16, 2026: Netflix reports second-quarter revenue of $12.56 billion, shares down 8 percent
  • July 20, 2026: The Trade Desk adds Netflix to the Sellers and Publishers 500+ marketplace with no minimum spend

Summary

Who: The Trade Desk and Netflix, with implications for advertisers and agencies buying connected-TV and streaming inventory programmatically.

What: The Trade Desk added Netflix inventory to its Sellers and Publishers 500+ marketplace, making it accessible through always-on marketplace deals with no minimum spend, no separate integration, and no workflow change. Netflix inventory was previously reachable only through programmatic guaranteed or private marketplace deals.

When: July 20, 2026, per The Trade Desk's platform resources page.

Where: Inside Kokai, The Trade Desk's programmatic buying platform, activated through the Forward tile and Marketplace Summary. The audience spans Netflix's more than 250 million global monthly active users in ad-supported markets.

Why: The change lowers the barrier to buying Netflix inventory, admitting smaller and mid-sized advertisers who transact through standard programmatic workflows rather than negotiated deals. It aligns with Netflix's push to make programmatic buying more than half of its non-live advertising business and its target of roughly $3 billion in 2026 ad revenue, while giving The Trade Desk a stronger premium-inventory proposition amid fee competition from Amazon.