Netflix reported its second-quarter 2023 earnings Wednesday, revealing its subscribers increased by 5.89 million in the quarter ended June 30.
At the end of Q1, Netflix’s global subscriber count was 232.5 million, which rose to 238.39 million at the conclusion of Q2.
Analysts had project the streamer gaining 1.769 million new subscribers in Q2, which saw Netflix begin notifying customers in the U.S. and other countries that users on their accounts who live outside their households would need to be added as an “extra member” (or pay for their own subscriptions).
In a letter to shareholders accompanying the Q2 results, Netflix noted: “We anticipate Q3’23 paid net adds will be similar to Q2’23 paid net additions”
Wall Street forecast earnings per share (EPS) of $2.86 on $8.3 billion in revenue, according to analyst consensus data provided by Refinitiv. Netflix reported diluted EPS of $2.88 on $8.2 billion in revenue.
Netflix stock closed Wednesday at $476.94 per share. The regular U.S. stock markets will reopen at Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Earlier Wednesday, Netflix confirmed it is eliminating its Basic plan, its cheapest streaming plan without ads, in the U.S. and U.K. in an attempt to boost customers on the ad-supported Standard With Ads, which the company first launched last November. In May, Netflix said it had signed up more than 5 million members for its ad-supported plans, with 25% of new subs taking the package.
“Our starting prices of $6.99 in the U.S. and £4.99 in the U.K. [for Standard With Ads] are lower than the competition and provide great value to consumers given the breadth and quality of our catalog,” a Netflix spokesperson told Variety.
Netflix executives will speak about the quarter in greater detail during a pre-recorded analyst interview scheduled to post at 6 p.m. ET.
More to come…
