Netflix Revenue Rises 8 Percent

Releasing its Q3 financials, with revenues up 8 percent to $8.5 billion, Netflix indicated it is looking to increase its slate of licensed fare following the breakout success of Suits on the platform.

“Licensing has always been an important part of our programming strategy,” the company said in its letter to shareholders. “As the competitive environment evolves, we may have increased opportunities to license more hit titles to complement our original programming. We believe this will deliver additional value for our members (i.e., engagement), as well as for rights holders who benefit from the increased awareness and revenue that Netflix delivers, in addition to the new life that success on Netflix can drive.”

The global streamer added 8.8 million subs in the period to reach 247.15 million members. Its 9 percent year-on-year increase in average paid memberships was driven in part by its crackdown on account sharing. It also saw continued traction in its ad tier, where membership was up almost 70 percent quarter over quarter. In countries where it offers the ad tier, 30 percent of signups are to that plan. “We remain very optimistic about our long-run opportunity in this very big market. Ad dollars follow eyeballs, and more and more TV viewing is shifting from linear to streaming—we’re a leader in streaming engagement, and the engagement of our ad tier members is strong. While we have much work to do to build out this business, we’re making good progress and laying the foundation for what we believe should be a multibillion-dollar revenue stream over time.”

The platform is implementing price increases in the U.S., U.K. and France. In the U.S., the Ads ($6.99) and Standard ($15.49) plans remain unchanged, but Basic goes up to $11.99 and Premium to $22.99. For the U.K., Ads/Basic/Standard/Premium will be £4.99/£7.99/£10.99/£17.99, and in France €5.99/€10.99/€13.49/€19.99.

In North America, revenues rose to $3.7 billion, with 1.75 million paid net additions to reach 77.32 million. EMEA subs rose by almost 4 million to reach 83.8 million, with revenues up to $2.7 billion. LatAm revenues rose to $1.1 billion, with 1.2 million net adds to hit 43.65 million. AsiaPac revenues grew to $948 million with a membership base of 42.4 million, adding 1.9 million members in the period.