Netflix grows subscribers and bets on live TV | Economy

“We are entering 2024 at a great time.” Netflix’s optimism about the new year is hard to hide. This Tuesday, the streaming giant presented results for the last quarter of 2023, with 13.1 million subscribers joining the service worldwide. This figure is much higher than the nine million that the company itself predicted for this period, and consolidates with 260.2 million subscribers. These figures lifted the share price by 7% after the stock market closed.

The company achieved record revenue late last year. Netflix also beat Wall Street’s expectations in this area. The company reported profit of $8.83 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of about $8.7 billion. The amount represents a 12.5% ​​increase over revenue achieved in the final quarter of 2022. Key to growth was the decision to increase pricing and monetization, made possible in part by ending the use of shared passwords with the ability for users to add and transfer profiles within their accounts.

Advertising is beginning to become an important factor in the company’s performance, which is one year old with two executives sharing the CEO title (Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos). Four out of ten new users joined the service, which allows advertising in programming. This model attracted 23 million unique users per month. In November there were eight million.

“Scaling the advertising business represents an opportunity to generate new revenues and profits in the medium to long term,” the company says. “Advertising-enabled membership grew nearly 70% between quarters,” they add. The company announced that this model will replace the basic subscription, which will begin phasing out in the second quarter of this year in the Canadian and UK markets.

The company forecasts a strong first quarter of 2024. Netflix estimates profit growth of 13% for the period. The increase in financial forecasts increased by 3%, partly due to the collapse of the Argentine peso against the dollar.

The company is telling its investors that 2024 is a year of “opportunity.” Netflix is ​​the market leader streaming, although he admits that it is below YouTube in terms of hours watched. They reached 100,000 million hours of streaming in the first half of 2023, thanks to 18,000 titles in their catalogue. The most viewed films on the platform were, in particular, the Julia Roberts thriller. Leave the world behind

animated film with 134.2 million views Leowhere Adam Sandler provided his voice (108 million) and Rebel Moon, Zack Snyder (74.6 million). They also highlight the large audience achieved through Berlinprequel to Money robbery and the season finale Sex education and Corona, which left 45.7 and 30 million views respectively.

Live Events

This year the company decided to experiment. To achieve this goal, he intends to redouble his commitment to live events. “This will allow us to understand what audiences value most and how we can turn those moments into events,” the company notes in its document. Netflix embarked on this path last March with the release of a comedy special in which Chris Rock opened up about the punch he received the year before on Oscar night.

On Tuesday, Netflix accompanied the presentation of the results with news. Beginning in January 2025, viewers in North America, the UK and Latin America will be able to experience a weekly, star-studded American wrestling show exclusively on Raw. “This marks the largest programming change in broadcast history, with linear television leaving the broadcaster for the first time since its inception 31 years ago,” the tech giant said in a statement. The agreement, which is described as “long-term” although how many years is not specified, will allow the digital network to air WWE content exclusively in various international markets.

This year, Netflix also organized a friendly match in Las Vegas between two Spanish tennis stars, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz. The event, which will take place on March 3, is called Netflix Slam. This will generate strong interest in Spain, the company’s fifth most important market.

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