The number of Netflix subscribers increased and bets on live events increased. economy

“We are entering 2024 at a great time.” It’s hard to hide Netflix’s optimism for the year as it begins. This Tuesday, the streaming giant presented results for the last quarter of 2023, where 13.1 million subscribers were added to the service worldwide. This figure is far more than the nine million that the company itself had predicted for the period and consolidates with 260.2 million subscribers. The data increased the share price by 7% after the stock market closed.

The company achieved record revenue at the end of last year. Netflix also beat Wall Street expectations in the region. The company reported revenue of $8.83 billion, while analysts had expected $8.7 billion. This amount is 12.5% ​​more than the revenue achieved in the last quarter of 2022. Key to the growth was the decision to increase prices and monetize, which was made possible, in part, by eliminating users’ ability to share passwords. Add and transfer profiles to their accounts.

Advertising is beginning to become a significant factor in the company’s numbers, celebrating one year with two executives sharing the title of CEO (Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos). Four out of ten new users have joined a service that allows advertisements in programming. This model has generated 23 million unique monthly users. There were eight million in November.

“Growing the advertising business represents an opportunity to drive new revenues and profits in the medium and long term,” the company says. He added, “Subscriptions that allow ads have increased by nearly 70% between quarters.” The company has announced that this model will replace the basic subscription, which will begin to be phased out in the second quarter of this year in the Canada and United Kingdom markets.

The company estimates that the first quarter of 2024 will be solid. Netflix estimates profits will increase 13% for the period. The increase in financial forecasts is partly due to the decline in the exchange rate of the Argentine peso against the dollar, which has increased by 3%.

The company tells its investors that 2024 is a year of “opportunities.” Netflix is ​​the market leader streaming, although it admits it is below YouTube in watch hours. They achieved 100,000 million hours of playback in the first half of 2023 thanks to the 18,000 titles in their catalogue. The most watched films on the platform were, among others, the Julia Roberts thriller leave the world behindAnimated film with 134.2 million views leowhere Adam Sandler lent his voice (108 million) and rebel moon, by Zack Snyder (74.6 million). They also highlight the huge audience achieved berlinprequel to The Money Heist, and season finale sex education and the crown, Which were viewed 45.7 and 30 million times respectively.

Live broadcast of events

The company has decided to experiment this year. To achieve this, it intends to double its commitment to live events. “This will help us understand what audiences value most and how we can turn these moments into events,” the company wrote in its document. Netflix took this path last March with a comedy special where Chris Rock talked about the shock he received on Oscar night a year earlier.

This Tuesday, Netflix presented the results along with the news. Starting in January 2025, viewers in North America, the United Kingdom and Latin America will be able to watch American Wrestling’s weekly Starcast show exclusively on the Raw service. A statement from the technology giant said, “This marks the largest programming change in the history of broadcasting, leaving linear television for the first time since its founding 31 years ago.” The agreement, described as “long-term” although how many years has not been specified, will allow the digital network to air WWE content exclusively in various international markets.

For this year, Netflix has also organized a friendly match between two Spanish tennis stars, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas. This event to be held on March 3 has been named Netflix Slam. This will generate a lot of interest in Spain, the fifth most important market for the company.

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