Netflix announced on Wednesday October 19 its quarterly results, better than expected, and a jump in its subscribers, despite the fierce competition raging in streaming. According to a statement, quarter-over-quarter, the streaming giant gained 8.76 million subscribers, reaching 247.1 million at the end of September, while year-over-year its portfolio grew by 10.8 %.
The platform explains the sharp increase in subscribers on the account of its content and the rise of streaming on a global scale, but also on the success of its new pricing for accounts shared between several users. At the end of May, this billing for sharing identifiers with people who are not members of the household was implemented in around a hundred countries.
According to Netflix estimates, before this development, more than 100 million households let other people use their accounts. The group also stressed that the subscription cancellation rate linked to this billing “remains low, below what we anticipated,” according to the press release. Furthermore, the proportion of people switching from using identifiers from another household to a paid subscription is “considerable”.
17 billion invested in content
In addition to growth, the platform is showing notable profitability, at a time when its major competitors, Disney in the first place, are seeking to evolve their economic model to make it profitable. Netflix has thus raised its operating margin forecast for its entire 2023 financial year, to 20% now, i.e. the top of the initially targeted range, between 18% and 20%. The online video service sees it improve significantly further in 2024, between 22% and 23%.
The platform also took advantage of the publication of its results to announce an increase in some of its prices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, which should further improve its profitability. In detail, the price of the basic offer (basic or essential) has increased, as has that of the Premium formula, while the versions with advertising and standard remain unchanged. Netflix thus deliberately keeps the price of the offer with advertising low, which constitutes a flagship product for people who are not yet subscribed to the platform.
Over the three months from July to September, net profit was up 20%, to $1.6 billion. Turnover grew by nearly 8%, to $8.54 billion. Favorably positioned, Netflix intends to accelerate further. While spending on content production should be lower than expected in 2023, around $13 billion, due to the writers’ and actors’ strike, the group plans to put around $17 billion on the table. next year.