9 million new subscriptions

Netflix: fight against account sharing pays off

Netflix now has 269.6 million paying customers worldwide.

(Bild: All rights reserved - Ruggiero Scardigno © copyright)

Netflix continues to grow unabated with its crackdown on password free-riders - and is confident that it will be able to push through further price increases in the future. In the past quarter, 9.33 million subscribers were added. The video streaming market leader thus far exceeded the expectations of analysts, who had expected an average increase of around 4.9 million customers.

The uninterrupted influx of users puts Netflix in a position of strength, while competitors such as Disney+ and Paramount+ are struggling for profitability. At the same time, Netflix wants to continue producing many films - and is also open to sports deals at a reasonable price. "We are not against sport, but for profitable growth," said Co-CEO Ted Sarandos after presenting the quarterly figures on Thursday. Opportunities will be seized in more and more areas - but with cost discipline. At the same time, Sarandos rejected a media report that Netflix wanted to put the brakes on expensive film productions. They don't want to make fewer films - but better ones.

Netflix still has plenty of scope to make the service more attractive - "and then ask people to pay a little more money", said the second co-chief executive Greg Peters. Following price increases in other countries, Netflix also raised its rates in Germany last week. The most expensive "Premium" subscription with 4K picture quality and 3D sound now costs 19.99 euros instead of the previous 17.99 euros. In contrast, the price of the subscription with advertising remains unchanged at 4.99 euros per month. In the USA, the "Premium" subscription costs 22.99 dollars (21.5 euros).

Almost 270 million subscription customers
Netflix now has 269.6 million paying customers worldwide. From next year, the service will no longer provide information on the current number of subscribers every quarter. For market observers, this was previously an important indicator of the competition with other streaming providers. Netflix shares fell by 4.76 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Netflix argues that pure customer numbers are no longer as meaningful as they used to be in view of the various subscription models. Instead, the company wants to provide information about the financial situation with sales and profits as well as the popularity of individual series and films.

At the same time, the service signaled that growth would continue. For the current quarter, the service announced somewhat weaker customer growth, but a year-on-year increase in turnover of around 16%. In the past quarter, revenue rose by around 15 percent to 9.37 billion dollars (8.8 billion euros). The quarterly profit jumped from 1.3 billion dollars a year ago to 2.33 billion dollars.

The growth is being driven by the popularity of Netflix series and films. In the coming months, the service aims to score points with a new season of the series "Bridgerton" and a new "Beverly Hills Cop" film featuring the return of Eddie Murphy to his signature role, among other things.