Netflix added 1.75 million subscribers in its first full quarter with ads

April 19, 2023

Profits are back on track, but share growth leaves something to be desired.

Media analysts expected Netflix to add 2-3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023. The streaming king was 1.75 million behind. The number of new worldwide paid subscribers is 232.5 million. It also leads the world, unless you count every Disney-controlled streaming subscription separately.

It was the first quarter in which Netflix did not release internal estimates of net subscriber growth (or loss) to the press and investment community. Given the results, it was probably a good time to leave it, but with the addition of Netflix’s “Basic with Ads” tier, revenue — not subscriber growth — is the company’s primary driver. Regardless of your preference, both were disappointing this quarter.

Netflix’s first-quarter revenue also fell slightly short of expectations: $8.162 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.18 billion. Wall Street believed the streamer could post earnings of $2.86 per share; Netflix beats that by two cents. Netflix’s net income, which was just $55 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 (the lowest quarter since 2016), jumped to $1.305 billion last quarter. This increased free cash flow from $332 million to more than $2.1 billion.

Most streamers would kill for any profit, let alone that profit, but Netflix is not the most streamer. The company’s senior management team will conduct its regular post-earnings video interview on YouTube at 6pm ET/3pm PT. The conversation, like the platform’s “Love Is Blind” Season 4 reunion, was pre-recorded.

While revenue and cash were hard to come by in the fourth quarter of 2022, subscribers were not. Netflix added 7.66 million subscribers from October to December; “Basic with Ads” was released in the US in November.

Also on Tuesday, Netflix shut down its famous DVD-by-mail division. RIP red envelopes, you ran well.

“Ginny and Georgia”

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

In a nod to some “Wednesday” attitude, the big (English-language) TV results for the first quarter are “The Night Agent” Season 1, “Ginny & Georgia” Season 2, “You” Season 4 and “Outer Banks” ” season were. 3. (“The Night Agent” actually kicked “Ginny & Georgia” off Netflix’s Top 10 list of all time; it’s currently the #6 English TV series.) Season 1 of “The Glory” was its biggest breakthrough on Netflix. non-English TV listings, nods to “Physical 100” Season 1 and “La Reina del Sur” Season 3.

“You People,” the movie “Luther” and Adam Sandler’s “Murder Mystery 2” dominated the streamer’s English-language movie list; there were no breakout crossover hits from non-English language films.

Hopefully, you’ve watched everything that’s already out there, let’s say borrowed Netflix Subscription – The streaming king is all about monetizing password sharers these days. The American rollout of “paid sharing” is about to begin. It won’t be too early for Netflix, as it has billions of dollars of untapped revenue.

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