(Reuters) – Netflix reported on Tuesday that it added 18.9 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street expectations by far, thanks in part to live broadcasts of sporting events and the arrival of the new season from the South Korean series “Squid Game”.
The title of the streaming giant rose by almost 10% in after-hours trading, with a valuation approaching $40 billion.
Highlighting the fact that it continued to invest in programs requested by its users, Netflix indicated that it would raise the price of its subscriptions in the United States, Canada, Portugal and Argentina.
The basic offer with advertisements in the United States will cost $7.99 per month compared to $6.99, an increase of 14%, while the price of the so-called premium subscription will be increased by 9% to 24 .99 dollars, he said.
Netflix said programming offered in the fourth quarter exceeded even internal expectations, with the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing fight, for example, becoming the most-watched sporting event live online. The platform also offered for the first time, on Christmas Day, two matches of the North American Professional American Football Championship (NFL) live.
This is the final quarter for which Netflix reports the number of new subscribers, with the company opting instead to highlight other data, such as its revenue and profit – a change that analysts attribute to the slowdown growth of new customers.
-In the October-December period, Netflix reported earnings per share of $4.27, beating Wall Street expectations of an average of $4.20.
The group’s turnover increased over one year by 16% to 10.2 billion dollars, while the consensus was 10.1 billion according to LSEG data.
“We are starting 2025 with strong momentum,” Netflix said in a note to its shareholders, reporting 41 million new subscribers over the past year.
The group says it expects turnover this year of between $43.5 billion and $44.5 billion.
(Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, with contributions from Juby Babu and Noel Randewich; French version Jean Terzian)
