Netflix added 9.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2024, it announced Thursday, surpassing analyst expectations and cementing its status as the dominant streaming company in the entertainment industry.
It also generated $2.3 billion in net income and its revenue was $9.3 billion, up 15 percent compared to the same period last year. Netflix now has almost 270 million subscribers worldwide.
The streaming giant said its quarter was boosted by audience interest in series such as “Griselda,” “3 Body Problem” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Its advertising business, which is now one year old and offers subscribers a lower-priced option, grew 65 percent compared to the last quarter. The company said that in markets where the ad tier was available, 40 percent of new signups chose that option. The fight against password sharing between households also boosted the company's quarterly numbers.
“As we noted in our last letter, our two priorities in advertising are expanding our member base and developing our capabilities for advertisers,” the company said in a letter to shareholders. “We made progress on both fronts in the first quarter.”
The company now expects full-year revenue growth to reach between 13 percent and 15 percent.
“No entertainment company has ever programmed on this scale and with this ambition before,” Netflix said in its letter. “To satisfy such a large audience, we need a lot of great stories that appeal to many different tastes, and by great we mean movies, series and games that our members love (that is, we take a quality audience-centric approach )”.
Dan Lin began his role as Netflix's head of movies on April 1, and his message to employees has been to improve the overall quality of the service's movies and produce a wider variety of films at different budget levels. The goal is to better appeal to the diverse interests of Netflix's growing subscriber base.
Films highlighted by Netflix for driving engagement during the first quarter included “Damsel,” starring Millie Bobby Brown, “Lift” with Kevin Hart and “The Greatest Night in Pop,” a documentary about the making of the charity song “We Are the World.” in 1985.
