After having suffered a historic decline in the first half of the year, the streaming leader Netflix had promised a rebound by counting on one million additional subscribers worldwide. In the end, some 2.4 million new customers joined the American platform in the third quarter.
“Thank God we’re done with the down quarters”
In all, according to its results press release published on Tuesday, October 18, Netflix now has 223 million paying subscribers, thus beating its record at the end of 2021 (221.8 million), the result of two years of an ultra-favorable pandemic for services. online entertainment. “Thank goodness we’re done with the down quarters,” exclaimed Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings during a videoconference on Tuesday. “We must continue this momentum,” he added.
“The recipe is to please our members”
The company had suffered the blow, at the beginning of 2022, by seeing its number of subscribers drop by nearly 1.2 million over six months. This new figure allows Netflix to regain – at least temporarily – the place of the largest video streaming service in the world. Disney eclipsed it in August by announcing that it had 221 million subscribers, a number that will be updated on November 8 when it publishes its summer results.
Launching a new subscription with ads
“After a difficult first half, we believe we are on the path to accelerated growth again. The recipe is to please our members,” assured the Californian group. For the current quarter, Netflix can count on the return of popular series such as Emily in Paris Where The Crown, but also on the launch, in November, in the United States and on eleven other markets, of a new, less expensive monthly subscription, but with advertising. Netflix has long refused this less prestigious solution, but the platform now hopes to attract new consumers and earn additional revenue with this means.
Netflix predicts that this new subscription will bring it an additional 4.5 million subscriptions during the fourth quarter, and is now betting on more than 227.5 million total subscribers by the end of the year.