Netflix adds 9.3 million new subscribers, beats expectations

Netflix's first quarter report for 2024 exceeded expectations, as it reported 9.3 million new subscribers and profits of roughly $2.3 billion (around €2.2 billion). 

The Silicon Valley streaming company now boasts 269.6 million subscribers in all. North America, with some 83 million, is its biggest market.

"With more than two people per household on average, we have an audience of over half a billion people," Netflix said in a letter to investors. "No entertainment company has ever programmed at this scale and with this ambition before."

Crackdown on account sharing, service with ads to boost revenues

Netflix took in more than $1 billion more in profit than it had in the same quarter of 2023, according to earnings figures. Similarly, revenue was up by just over $1 billion. 

Nevertheless, the company's shares dipped slightly in after-market trading on Thursday.

But the shares have been on a marked upwards trajectory over the past year, amid bids to maximize revenue including a crackdown on people sharing their passwords across multiple households and the introduction of a lower-cost subscription that includes advertisements. 

Having stood below $300 this time last year, the stock recently peaked at just over $581. 

This reflected investors increasingly seeing the company as the relatively clear winner in the fiercely competitive streaming market that includes Apple, Amazon, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. 

However, Netflix also surprised investors by disclosing in a letter to shareholders that it would stop providing quarterly updates on subscriber numbers starting next year. This will make the company's progress more difficult to track.

It had posted the regular updates ever since it first went public in 2002, initially as an online rival to DVD rental stores.