Is Netflix’s Subscriber Jolt a One-Hit Wonder?
The stars aligned for Netflix in its latest quarter, but making sequels to this hit will be a challenge. The streaming giant said Wednesday that it added about 8.8 million net new paid subscribers during the third quarter. That is the highest number added in a single quarter since early 2020, when interest in TV streaming exploded during the pandemic lockdowns.
It was also 45% higher than what Wall Street had expected for subscriber additions. The company said it expects a similar jump in the fourth quarter, which would come in ahead of the 7.7 million that analysts had been predicting. Netflix gave the investor crowd more reason to cheer with a new price hike—its first major one since early 2022.
Monthly rates on two of the company’s U.S. plans are going up by 15% to 20%, with the premium ad-free plan now costing $22.99 a month. That ties with YouTube’s premium family plan as the most expensive of video streaming options, though Netflix maintained the price of its ad-supported plan and its standard ad-free tier.
The move brings the average monthly cost of Netflix’s plans up by 10%. Netflix’s shares, which have shed more than one-quarter of their value since the company’s last earnings report, soared more than 12% in after-hours trading Wednesday. The latest results are the first real sign that the company’s effort to crack down on password-sharing has helped bring in new subscribers.
That program started in Netflix’s largest markets about midway through the second quarter, and the company says it is now “revenue positive" in all the markets where it has introduced the option for households to add nonhousehold members to their account for an additional charge. That crackdown also hasn’t been universal. On a conference
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