Netflix finally gains 2.4 mn subscribers after poor growth this year

San Francisco, Oct 19

Streaming giant Netflix has gained 2.41 million subscribers in the July-September quarter, bringing the total to 223.09 million globally.

It said that after a challenging first half when it lost subscribers, it is once again on a path to reaccelerate growth.

Netflix reported $7.93 billion in revenue in Q3 2022 and operating income totalled $1.5 billion.

"Our 6 per cent year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 was driven by a 5 per cent increase in average paid memberships," the company said in its earnings report late on Tuesday.

In the APAC region, Netflix added 1.4 million paid memberships.

For the fourth quarter, Netflix is expecting revenue of $7.8 billion with the sequential decline entirely due to the continued strengthening of the US dollar against other currencies.

"It's been a huge challenge to build a lifetime of entertainment in just ten years in multiple languages and across so many different genres - series, films, animation, stand-up and non-fiction," said the streaming company.

"Given everything we've learned, we're confident we can deliver even more member value per content investment dollar over time," Netflix added.

The company last week announced that it will launch an ad-supported subscription plan in select countries in November.

"To start, we're keeping it simple by offering one low-priced ad plan -- Basic with Ads -- at a price that's 20-40 per cent below our current starting price," it announced.

"The reaction from advertisers so far has been extremely positive and we believe that more choice, especially for more price conscious consumers, will translate into meaningful incremental revenue andAoperating profit over time," Netflix added.

Finally, the company is going to monetise account sharing and will begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023.

"We are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts if they want to pay for family or friends,a it said.