NO FANTASY
STRANGER THINGS JUST KEEPS ON GIVING AS NETFLIX SHATTERS SUBSCRIBER FORECASTS.
LOS ANGELES • Stranger Things is the gift that keeps on giving for Netflix Inc.
The world’s largest online TV network signed up 8.33 million customers in the fourth quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 6.34 million, thanks in large part to the popularity of the fantasy series. Netflix now has 117.6 million customers worldwide, wrapping up its biggest year ever for new subscribers.
While rival media companies merge, fire staff and fret about the future of their businesses, Netflix keeps chugging along, adding customers at home, in Europe and Latin America. Sales grew by a third to US$ 3.29 billion, the company said Monday after markets closed, while earnings almost tripled from a year prior.
Netflix will plow all of that and more into new TV shows and movies, and has said it will spend as much as US$ 8 billion on programming this year. The company will dramatically increase its non- English programming with anime series and local language productions.
Shares of the Los Gatos, Calif.- based company rose 7.2 per cent to US$ 244 in extended trading. The stock had gained 15 per cent this year prior to Monday and its market value at US$97 billion was more than four times that of CBS Corp., owner of the most- watched U.S. TV network.
International territories accounted for the bulk of the subscriber growth in the most recent quarter and hold the key to Netflix’s future, with additions totalling 6.36 million to beat the 5.05 million average of analysts’ estimates. International operations were profitable on an annual basis for the first time, the company said.
The U. S. business also showed vigour, signing 1.98 million new customers, up from a year ago and beating analysts’ projections of 1.29 million, according to Bloomberg data.
Netflix churns out a wide range of new shows every month to entice new viewers and keep old ones. The company released new seasons of two of its biggest hits, Stranger Things and The Crown, in the latest quarter. It also released the first season of David Fincher’s Mindhunter, a US$ 90- million movie starring Will Smith, and its first original German series, Dark.
Netflix predicted it will add 6.35 million customers worldwide in the first quarter of the year, more than the average 5.18 million projection of three analysts. The company said that includes 1.45 million new subscribers in the U.S.
The firm plans to boost marketing outlays in 2018, according to the statement.
Net income for the quarter increased to US$186 million, or 41 cents a share, Netflix said, in line with analysts’ estimates. Results included a US$39-million charge for unreleased content. During the quarter, the company fired Kevin Spacey from House of Cards and cancelled a planned movie with the actor after he was accused of sexual misconduct.