Netflix gains more than 13 million subscribe
rs in the fourth quarter
check linksays: Netflix announced a major boost in sign-ups in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. The company added more than 13 million subscribe
rs for the quarter, compared to Wall Street’s expectati
on of 8.7 million.
While Netflix added 1.2 million paid subscribe
rs in the fourth quarter in the US, much of the strongest subscribe
r growth came internati
onally from Europe and Asia.
Overall, Netflix now has a record number of subscribe
rs at 260.3 million.
And investors seem to be cheering: Netflix’s stock jumped more than 7% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Password sharing and Netflix’s foray into ads
In the past year, the company implement
ed several initiativ
es aimed at adding subscribe
rs, including a password-sharing crackdown that pushed password “borrowers” into creating their own subscript
ions and introduci
ng an advertisi
ng-supported subscript
ion tier for $6.99.
The plan is significa
ntly cheaper than Netflix’s ad-free offerings, at $6.99 per month in the US. In October, Netflix said it raised the price of its premium ad-free plan to $22.99 while its one-stream basic plan rose to $11.99.
browse pagesays: Earlier this month, Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s president of advertisi
ng, said Netflix’s ad tier hit more than 23 million monthly membershi
ps.
On Tuesday, Netflix sounded a positive note on its growing advertisi
ng business.
On the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said he had high hopes for Netflix’s ability to snatch ad dollars from tradition
al TV competito
rs.
“We know ad dollars follow engagemen
t. We’ve got the most engaged audience so we believe we’re well positione
d to capture some of that ad spend that shifts from linear to streaming,” he said.
In Tuesday letter to sharehold
ers, Netflix declared its password-sharing crackdown a success, as well.
