Netflix gains more than nine million subscriptions
Netflix continues to grow unabated with its crackdown on password freeloaders - and is confident that it will be able to push through further price increases in the future. In the past quarter, 9.33 million subscribers were added.
The video streaming market leader thus far exceeded the expectations of analysts, who had anticipated an average increase of around 4.9 million customers. The uninterrupted inflow puts Netflix in a position of strength, while competitors such as Disney+ and Paramount+ are struggling to maintain profitability.
At the same time, Netflix wants to continue producing many films - and is also open to sports deals at a reasonable price. "We are not against sport, but for profitable growth," said Co-CEO Ted Sarandos after the presentation of quarterly figures on Thursday. Opportunities will be seized in more and more areas - but with cost discipline. At the same time, Sarandos rejected a media report that Netflix wanted to put the brakes on expensive film productions. They don't want to make fewer films - but better ones.
Netflix still has plenty of scope to make the service more attractive - "and then ask people to pay a little more money", said the second co-chief executive Greg Peters. Netflix had recently increased its prices.
Almost 270 million paying customers
Netflix now has 269.6 million paying customers worldwide. From next year onwards, the service will no longer provide information on the current number of subscribers every quarter. For market observers, this was previously an important indicator of the competition with other streaming providers. Netflix shares fell by 4.76 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday.
Netflix argues that pure customer figures are no longer as meaningful as they used to be in view of the various subscription models. Instead, the company wants to provide information about the financial situation with revenue and profit as well as the popularity of individual series and films.
Netflix holds out the prospect of growth
At the same time, the service signaled that growth would continue. For the current quarter, the service announced somewhat weaker customer growth, but a year-on-year increase in turnover of around 16%. In the past quarter, revenue rose by around 15 percent to 9.37 billion dollars. The quarterly profit jumped from 1.3 billion dollars a year ago to 2.33 billion dollars.
This growth is being driven by the popularity of Netflix series and films. In the coming months, the service aims to score points with a new season of the series "Bridgerton" and a new "Beverly Hills Cop" film with Eddie Murphy returning to his signature role, among other things. (SDA/swi)
