Streaming Ad CPM Benchmarks by Platform (2026): Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, Peacock and Paramount+
Streaming ad CPM benchmarks by platform in 2026 run from roughly $7 to $65, but most advertisers transact between $22 and $34. Upfront streaming CPMs fell 4.9% to $25.90 this year. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video price highest at a $30–$40 blended rate, while free ad-supported services like Tubi and Pluto TV clear $15–$25.
That spread is the whole story of streaming in 2026. Two years ago, buying a premium streamer meant paying a premium — full stop. Now the price gap between a Netflix impression and a Tubi impression has narrowed enough that the choice is a strategy question, not a budget question.
Supply is the reason. Amazon switched Prime Video to ad-supported by default and added an enormous pool of impressions almost overnight. Netflix, Disney+ and Max followed with their own ad tiers. Advertiser demand grew — but nowhere near as fast as inventory did.
Below are the platform-level numbers we use when we build streaming plans, where they came from, and what we would actually do with them.
Streaming CPMs fell again in 2026 — here is how far
Media Dynamics data reported by Digiday puts 2026 upfront streaming CPMs at $25.90, down 4.9% from $27.75 a year earlier. Agency executives quoted in the same reporting described major ad-supported streamers rolling back prices by roughly 5% to 10%, with the steeper cuts landing on premium products.
That is the second consecutive year of compression. It is not a distressed market — it is a market where advertisers finally have leverage, because there are now six or seven credible places to buy the same living-room impression.
The structural imbalance behind it is worth internalizing. eMarketer estimates connected TV captured 20.2% of time spent with media in 2025 but attracted just 7.7% of total ad spend. Attention has moved to streaming faster than budgets have. As budgets catch up, this pricing window closes.
NAMEX 2026 Streaming Ad CPM Benchmarks by Platform
The table below consolidates published rate ranges and reported transaction data for the major US ad-supported streaming platforms. Ranges reflect the gap between broad, programmatically bought inventory and targeted or direct premium buys.
| Platform | Programmatic / broad CPM | Premium or direct CPM | Practical planning CPM |
| Netflix | $20–$30 | $45–$65 | $32 |
| Amazon Prime Video (DSP) | $29–$33 | $35–$40 | $31 |
| Amazon streaming TV (Sponsored Ads console) | $8–$15 | n/a | $12 |
| Hulu / Disney+ | $15–$25 | $30–$40 | $24 |
| Peacock | $15–$25 | $28–$35 | $23 |
| Paramount+ | $7–$18 | $25–$35 | $18 |
| Roku Channel | $20–$28 | $30–$35 | $24 |
| Tubi / Pluto TV (FAST) | $15–$20 | $22–$25 | $18 |
| YouTube (TV screens) | $12–$22 | $25–$35 | $19 |
Two things jump out. First, Paramount+ has the lowest published entry point in premium streaming at roughly $7, which makes it the cheapest way into name-brand content. Second, the Amazon split is the widest on the board: the same publisher sells impressions at $8–$15 through its self-serve Sponsored Ads console and $29–$33 through Amazon DSP. Same content, wildly different price, depending entirely on which door you walk through.
If you want the underlying performance metrics that sit alongside these prices — completion rate, view-through rate and return on ad spend by vertical — our 2026 CTV advertising benchmarks for CPM, VCR and ROAS covers them in detail.
The NAMEX 2026 blended streaming CPM range
Individual platform rate cards are useful for negotiation. They are close to useless for planning, because almost nobody buys a single streamer.
So here is our own synthesis. Reconciling the Media Dynamics upfront figure of $25.90, eMarketer's reported market average of roughly $26 for 2026, and the platform-level ranges in the table above, the defensible 2026 blended streaming CPM range for a mixed premium-plus-FAST buy is $22 to $34, with $27 the realistic planning midpoint.
Three sources feed that number: Media Dynamics upfront transaction data (the floor-setting input), eMarketer market averages (the mid-market input), and published platform rate ranges (the ceiling input). Where they disagreed, we weighted toward transacted rates over published rate cards, because rate cards are asking prices and upfront data is what actually cleared.
Use $27 as your planning CPM. If a partner quotes you materially above $34 for a standard audience segment, you are paying for something — sports, premium pods, tight targeting — and you should be able to name what it is.
Where streaming ad dollars are actually going
Price is only half the picture. Share of spend tells you where the liquidity is, which determines how easily you can actually deliver a plan.
US CTV ad spend reaches approximately $37.95 billion in 2026, up around 15% year over year, per eMarketer. Within that:
- YouTube takes roughly 11.9% of US CTV ad revenue — about $9.2 billion in net ad sales — reaching 171 million monthly US viewers on TV screens.
- Hulu and Disney+ combined command roughly 10.8% of US CTV ad sales, with Hulu's own US ad revenue approaching $5 billion.
- Amazon Prime Video sits above $3 billion in annual US CTV ad revenue.
- Amazon, Disney, Google and Roku each clear $3 billion+ individually — four platforms account for a substantial majority of accessible premium supply.
The practical implication: concentration is high. If your plan does not include at least two of those four, you will struggle to deliver reach at scale without overpaying elsewhere. This is the same dynamic we mapped in our comparison of CTV versus linear TV ad spend in 2026.
Completion rates are no longer a differentiator
Advertisers still ask which streaming platform delivers the best completion rate. In 2026 the honest answer is that they are all effectively the same, because nearly all of this inventory is non-skippable.
Peer39 measured CTV video completion rate at 97.51% in Q2 2026. Ad-supported streaming platforms including Peacock, Tubi and Pluto TV sit at roughly 97.2%. Non-skippable pre-roll clears 98.6%. Paramount+ reports around 96%.
The one real outlier is YouTube on TV screens, where skippable formats produce completion rates near 78% — meaningfully lower, but also a genuine signal of interest rather than a measure of whether someone could leave.
Stop optimizing toward VCR. When every platform returns 96–98%, the metric has no discriminating power. Frequency, incremental reach and downstream conversion are where the decisions actually get made — which is why we treat CTV frequency capping as the single highest-leverage control in a streaming plan.
Access and minimums by platform
The cheapest CPM is irrelevant if the minimum buy is larger than your quarter's budget. Entry thresholds vary enormously.
| Route to market | Typical minimum | Best for |
| Disney Campaign Manager (self-serve) | $500 per campaign | Local and SMB advertisers testing Hulu / Disney+ |
| Amazon Sponsored Ads console | Low hundreds | Retail and ecommerce brands already on Amazon |
| Amazon DSP | $10,000–$35,000 | Brands needing Prime Video premium pods and audience data |
| Independent DSPs (Trade Desk, DV360) | $5,000–$25,000 | Multi-platform buys and cross-publisher frequency control |
| Direct / insertion order with Hulu | $50,000+ | National brands buying guaranteed premium placements |
For most mid-market advertisers the independent DSP route wins, because it is the only path that lets you cap frequency across publishers rather than within one of them. Our CTV DSP comparison for 2026 breaks down the trade-offs, and the open exchange versus private marketplace benchmarks explain when a PMP is worth the CPM premium.
How to act on these benchmarks
Five moves, in order of impact:
- Reprice your existing buys against $27. If you locked rates in 2024 or early 2025 and have not renegotiated, you are almost certainly overpaying by 10–20%. The market moved; your insertion order probably did not.
- Check which Amazon door you are using. The gap between the Sponsored Ads console and Amazon DSP is the largest single arbitrage in streaming right now. If you do not need Prime Video premium pods or Amazon's shopper audiences, you may be paying triple for inventory you could buy directly.
- Add one FAST partner to every premium plan. Tubi and Pluto TV at $15–$25 pull your blended CPM down without measurably hurting completion rate. Use them for reach extension, not as your primary buy.
- Cap frequency across platforms, not within them. Six publishers each capping at 3/week is 18 exposures. This is where streaming budgets quietly evaporate.
- Instrument attribution before you scale. Falling CPMs make it tempting to buy more. Buying more without measurement just buys more unmeasured impressions — see our step-by-step guide to CTV attribution.
Paying above the $27 planning midpoint across your streaming buys, or unsure whether your frequency caps are stacking across publishers? Our free paid media audit benchmarks your actual delivered CPMs platform by platform against the ranges in this post and flags where you are overpaying.
Methodology
This analysis draws on 2026 upfront transaction data from Media Dynamics as reported by Digiday, US CTV ad spend and platform revenue-share forecasts from eMarketer, video completion rate measurement from Peer39 for Q2 2026, published rate and minimum-spend information from Paramount Ads Manager and Disney Campaign Manager, and reported Netflix and Amazon Prime Video pricing from Adweek and Digiday. The period covered is January 2026 through August 2026. Where sources disagreed, we weighted transacted upfront rates above published rate cards. Planning CPMs in the first table are North American Media Experts' own midpoints, not vendor-published figures.
Cite this data
Cite this data: North American Media Experts, "Streaming Ad CPM Benchmarks by Platform (2026): Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, Peacock and Paramount+" (2026). https://www.namediaexperts.com/blog-posts/streaming-ad-cpm-benchmarks-by-platform-2026
Frequently asked questions
What is the average streaming ad CPM in 2026?
Roughly $26 across the market, with 2026 upfront streaming CPMs transacting at $25.90 per Media Dynamics. For planning a mixed premium-plus-FAST buy, we use a $22–$34 range with $27 as the midpoint.
Which streaming platform has the cheapest CPM?
Paramount+ has the lowest published entry point in premium streaming at around $7, and Amazon's self-serve Sponsored Ads console clears streaming TV inventory at $8–$15. Among FAST services, Tubi and Pluto TV run $15–$25.
Why did streaming CPMs fall in 2026?
Supply outran demand. Amazon made Prime Video ad-supported by default, and Netflix, Disney+ and others launched or expanded ad tiers, flooding the market with premium impressions. Upfront CPMs fell 4.9% year over year as a result.
Is Netflix worth its CPM premium?
Sometimes. Netflix programmatic inventory at $20–$30 is competitive with Hulu and Peacock. Direct premium buys at $45–$65 are only defensible when you need specific content adjacency or exclusive live events. For general reach, cheaper platforms deliver comparable completion rates.
How much do I need to spend to advertise on streaming TV?
Disney Campaign Manager starts at $500 per campaign and Amazon's Sponsored Ads console starts in the low hundreds. Independent DSPs typically require $5,000–$25,000, and direct buys with Hulu start around $50,000.
Get your streaming plan benchmarked
If these numbers do not match what you are paying, that gap is worth understanding before your next flight goes live. We plan and buy streaming for brands across North America through our programmatic advertising and media strategy practices, alongside the rest of our paid media services.
Book an intro call to walk through your streaming plan with us, or start with a free paid media audit and we will benchmark your delivered CPMs against every platform in this post.