Streaming giant reports best quarter ever

Netflix has just reported its biggest quarter ever, on the back of its ongoing password-sharing crackdown and punters absorbing price rises that ran beyond inflation.

The streaming giant added 9.3 million subscribers for a total 270 million worldwide (a figure was not broken out for New Zealand).

“With more than two people per household on average, we have an audience of over half a billion people,” the company said in a letter to shareholders.

The performance announced on Thursday demonstrated that Netflix is still building on its momentum of last year, when a crackdown on free-loading viewers relying on shared passwords and the rollout of a low-priced option including commercials revived its growth following a post-pandemic lull.

The strategy resulted in Netflix adding 30 million subscribers last year — the second-largest annual increase in the service’s history.

Netflix’s gains during the Januarymarch period more than quadrupled the 1.8 million subscribers the video streaming service added at the same time last year, and was nearly three times more than analysts had projected. The Los Gatos, California, company ended March with nearly 270 million worldwide subscribers, including about 83 million in its biggest market covering the US and Canada.

Investors increasingly are viewing Netflix as the clear-cut winner in a fierce streaming battle that includes Apple, Amazon, Walt Disney Co and Warner Bros Discovery.

But Netflix surprised investors by disclosing in a shareholder letter it will stop providing quarterly updates about its subscriber totals beginning next year, a move that will make it more difficult to track the video streaming service’s growth — or contraction. The company has regularly posted its quarterly subscriber totals since going public 22 years ago.

Netflix’s shares dipped more than 3 per cent in extended trading, despite the strong financial showing.