On Tuesday afternoon Netflix announced its Q4 financial results, headlined by another strong quarter of revenue growth to cap off a terrific year for the streamer. Nearly 19 million new subscribers signed up for service between October and December, a 44% increase in the pace from the same period last year.
In addition to the jump in new subscribers, which may be the last time we hear new subscriber numbers from Netflix, Netflix also exceeded expectations for both top-line revenue and net profits. Investors reacted enthusiastically, driving the company share price up 13% for the week. To put this into perspective, this resulted in an increase in Netflix’s market capitalization by more than $50B in a single week.
Broad interest was driven by successful film titles such as CARRY-ON, season 2 of the popular thriller TV series Squid Games, live sporting events including the battle between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, and two Christmas Day NFL games.
Over half of Netflix’s new subscribers signed on to the ad-supported tier, which puts that service on track to more than double ad revenue in 2025. While Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos explained that it would be “challenging” for the company to justify the expense of gaining broadcast rights to entire sports leagues such as the NFL, his company will continue to license one-off live sporting events to bring more advertisers toward their platform.
Flush with consumer demand, the company also announced this week a series of price hikes to both its ad-supported and ad-free tiers of service. The monthly rate for the ad-supported plan will increase from $6.99 to $7.99 and the premium, ad-free tier will increase from $22.99 to $24.99. Moreover, Netflix’s EMILIA PEREZ is rising to the top of the race for Best Picture at the upcoming 2025 Academy Awards. Netflix’s 300 million global subscribers can’t be wrong, can they?