Transcription:
Conway Gittens: This is Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. This is what we are seeing today on TheStreet.
Earnings season keeps the stock market on fire Wednesday, with the S&P 500 now flirting with an all-time high. United Airlines beat sales and profit forecasts and offered a strong outlook for 2025. It's filling seats all over the plane. Procter and Gamble also beat expectations thanks to strong demand for staples like toilet paper.
Related: Netflix bets millions on cool new content
Continuing with the corporate theme, Netflix (NFLX) is raising prices, again. The ad-free Standard plan will cost $17.99 from $15.49 per month; that's a $2.50 jump. Meanwhile, the ad-supported plan is going up a dollar to $7.99 a month from $6.99; its first price increase since the tier launched. The price of the Premium Family plan is increasing by two dollars to $24.99 per month.
So why are prices rising again? Netflix told investors in a fourth-quarter earnings update: “As we continue to invest in programming and provide more value to our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so we can reinvest and make Netflix even better. “
The price increases come amid the largest net new subscriber gains in the company's history. 18.9 million people signed up for Netflix worldwide in the fourth quarter alone, 10 million more people than expected.
Those spectacular numbers reflect big early wins for Netflix as it expands into live programming. The fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul attracted an average global audience of more than 100 million. The NFL's Christmas Day games, with Beyoncé as the halftime act, attracted 65 million viewers. But it's not just about live programming. Squid Game, Season 2 is the third most watched series on Netflix worldwide. Having content that resonates comes at a cost, leading Netflix toward another price increase.
That will be enough for your daily report. From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittens of TheStreet.
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