2024-01-24 16:37:56
Netflix is starting 2024 with great fanfare. The streaming veteran gained more than 13 million additional subscribers during the last quarter of 2023, significantly more than expected, reaching 260.28 million subscribers in total.
The American platform, whose announcements were welcomed by Wall Street, achieved $8.8 billion in turnover during the holiday season (+12.5% in one year), according to its press release. results published Tuesday, a performance also better than analysts’ forecasts.
And also maintains great ambitions for the current quarter, betting on growth of 13%, or more than 9 billion dollars in revenue, and nearly 2 billion in net profits. Its title gained more than 7% during electronic trading after the close of the New York Stock Exchange.
“Lots of room for growth”
“We think there is a lot of room for growth with the expansion of streaming,” said the two bosses, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, quoted in the press release.
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“If we continue to improve Netflix faster than the competition, we will have a company that is always more valuable – for consumers, creators and shareholders.”
They also congratulated themselves on having launched the cheaper subscription formula with advertising, supposed to generate “long-term profits”.
For the period from October to December, the Californian group’s net profit came out a little lower than expected, at $938 million instead of $990 million, but well above the $55 million for the same period the previous year.
The return of “Squid Game”
The pioneer of online video services had already gained nearly 9 million subscribers during the summer, in particular thanks to its stricter policy in terms of sharing passwords between users.
At the end of the year, the final seasons of series like “Sex Education” or “The Crown” attracted crowds, as did “Berlin”, a series in the universe of the successful series “La Casa de Papel” or again “Squid Game: The Challenge”, a reality TV show inspired by the popular Korean series “Squid Game”. It also returns to the platform in 2024 with a second season.
“Despite the strikes last year which postponed the launch of certain titles, we have a substantial and bold program for 2024,” assured Netflix. Like its competitors, it can once again produce new content in the United States since the end of the historic strike in Hollywood in November.
The industry was paralyzed for six months by the double social movement of screenwriters and actors. They particularly demanded salary increases and safeguards in terms of artificial intelligence.
The main streaming services, however, assured that the impact of this strike would be limited for them, especially since it incidentally allowed them to save money.
The broadcast of professional wrestling
While Disney+ is still figuring out how to achieve profitability, Netflix’s operating margin came in at 20.6% for its full 2023 fiscal year, higher than its forecast. And the Los Gatos company sees it improving significantly again in 2024.
Enough to allow Netflix to expand further into other entertainment areas already occupied by its competitors, such as sport.
The group announced Tuesday morning that it had signed a ten-year broadcast agreement with the American professional wrestling league WWE, for $5 billion. From 2025, it has won exclusivity in the United States for “Raw”, WWE’s flagship show which last year was among the best audiences on American cable.
This is a major step for the platform which has until now remained relatively behind in the race for broadcasting rights to sporting events.
Amazon recently launched into this market, while Disney, through its subsidiary ESPN, Warner Bros Discovery and its Max platform, or Peacock, an offshoot of the NBCUniversal group, already controlled significant portfolios of rights which allowed them to add competitions to their streaming offering.
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