"“We’re obviously trying with our pricing strategy to migrate more subs to the advertiser-supported tier,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in August during a call with investors to discuss the company’s quarterly results."
"Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have recently said the ad-supported versions of their streaming platforms generate more money per user than their ad-free counterparts, as the advertising revenue more than offsets the lower subscription cost." -- https://www.wsj.com/business/media/netflix-price-increase-ac...
"Netflix executives have said that the ad tier brings in more average revenue per user than its $15.49 standard plan." -- https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflix-reworks-microsoft-pact-...
So if a viewer watches 155 ads (impressions) in a month they have earned Netflix more money with their eyeballs than they saved in subscription cost.
Netflix says people should expect “about 4 minutes of ads per hour” which is notably not directly equivalent to impressions. If each ad is 30 seconds it takes about 39 hours to reach 155 ad impressions. That’s close to 80 minutes per day each month.
Another way of looking at it is that you get paid $6.58 per hour to watch ads, up until you’ve watched 77.5 minutes of ads. After that you are paid $0 to watch ads.
[0] https://digiday.com/media-buying/netflixs-cpm-still-under-bu...
[1] They also say it was reduced from $65 (131 impressions) and plus this is a sales game so the rates will be up and down all the time based on KPIs and competitions to win steak knives and more comprehensive media buy deals.