Netflix breaks subscriber record despite strikes

Netflix announced that it reached 247.1 million subscribers during the third quarter of 202310.8% more than in the same period last year, despite great uncertainty about the impact of strikes in Hollywood on the world’s first streaming service.

This is a new customer record for the company, which achieved a net profit ofe 1.677 million dollars.

It also posted revenue of $8,542 million, an increase of 7.8% compared to the third quarter of 2022.

The Los Gatos (California, USA)-based company thus maintains its growth thanks to a transformation process to increase its profitability through advertising-supported plans and account restrictions with shared passwords.

After the announcement of the results, Netflix sent a letter to his shareholders in which he described these months of combined strikes as “difficult”, between the one promoted by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) – which has already ended – and the one still held by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA).

“We are committed to resolving outstanding issues as soon as possible so that everyone can get back to work making popular movies and television shows,” the statement said.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos already maintained this stance last week, when he revealed that the differences with the actors’ union are due to the fact that they intend to receive an allowance of as much as 57 cents a year for each new subscriber to the platforms.

New subscribers
Despite this, the company managed to add 8.8 million new subscribers, and its forecasts were even slightly exceeded due to the “growth” of the advertising-supported modality, which already accounts for 30% of new registrations in the countries where it operates. is available.

In the context of market uncertainty streaming platformswith delays in its productions resulting from the paralysis of the US entertainment industry, Netflix reported this Wednesday that they remain focused on “improving the offering with the best original and licensed titles around the world.”

Advertising plans and user-restriction policies with shared passwords aren’t the only alternatives the tech company plans to implement to keep growing its revenue.

Netflix’s vice president of global advertising sales, Peter Naylor, announced this week that they are already working on implementing a directly brand-sponsored format. This is the case of Frito Lay, the main advertiser of the next season of the dating show “Love is blind”.

In addition, the addition of an option where users of an ad-supported plan would be exempt from ads if they consume the first episodes of a network series, i.e. without leaving the platform, is being studied.

On the other hand, the jump to broadcasting sports events is reachingNext November 14 with the Netflix Cup, a golf tournament starring the stars of the American professional circuit (PGA Tour) and Formula 1 drivers, which will be sponsored by T-Mobile and Nespresso, among others.

With more than 247.1 million subscribers, Netflix is ​​the leading streaming service in the world, followed by Prime Video with 200 million and Disney with approximately 165 million across all its platforms: Disney+, Hulu, Star and ESPN+.