Netflix added 13.1 million paid subscribers in the fourth quarter as the company took a victory lap with its studio-leading tally of 18 Oscar nominations.
The streaming giant reported the growth despite raising the price of its premium plan and reintroducing its basic tier at a higher price in the fall. The company’s strategy has been to shift customers to the lower priced ad-based tier, which has remain unchanged at $6.99 a month.
In total, Netflix said it has 260.3 million subscribers around the world.
The massive platform allows the streamer to juggle prestige projects like the Oscar-nominated Maestro, a biopic of famed composer Leonard Bernstein starring Bradley Cooper, as well as sillier, but more popular fare like Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery. The streaming giant, like so many others, is pegging its growth to sports, and on Tuesday announced a deal to bring WWE Raw live to its service in 2025.
Netflix said it sees an opportunity to add live and sports-adjacent programming to the platform, and also mentioned making more games available as well. The company, however, also saw its fair share of cost cutting in 2023, with the number of shows produced down from the prior year and reported layoffs.
Overall, Netflix reported fourth-quarter earnings of $938 million, or $2.11 a share, compared with a year-ago profit of $55 million, or 12 cents a share. Revenue rose 12.5% to $8.83 billion.
Wall Street had expected Netflix to post earnings of $2.22 a share on revenue of $8.72 billion.
For the first quarter, Netflix expects to post earnings of $1.9 billion or $4.49 a share, on revenue of $9.24 billion.
Image credit: Netflix