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College freshmen kicked off their parents’ Netflix accounts may be up in arms about the streaming giant’s password sharing crackdown, but Netflix is getting the last laugh, according to its latest earnings report.
The company posted a revenue beat of $8.5 billion, after unveiling new password initiatives in the US in May.
And changes to the platform didn’t deter new subscribers: Netflix added 8.76 million subscribers globally in the quarter, handily beating the 5.49m Wall Street expected, per Street Account estimates. In Wednesday’s earnings release, Netflix cited “the roll out of paid sharing, strong, steady programming and the ongoing expansion of streaming globally” for the hefty climb. It marks the biggest jump since Netflix added 10+ million subscribers at the height of the pandemic in 2020, according to CNBC.
The two-second takeaway: Netflix is still setting the pace for the streaming industry—strikes, password crackdowns, and price increases be damned.
But all those things are still impacting the company, just not necessarily negatively. The most obvious is pricing: While Netflix will keep its ad tier pricing at $6.99 per month for US customers, its basic plan will be $11.99, up from $9.99, and its premium plan will cost $22.99, up from $19.99.
“Our starting price is extremely competitive with other streamers and at $6.99 per month in the US, for example, it’s much less than the average price of a single movie ticket,” the company said.
Netflix hasn’t raised prices since early 2022—and these new price hikes reflect a changing industry. In its negotiations with striking writers, members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which includes Netflix, agreed to bonuses for writers based on streaming popularity. Now, streamers like Netflix may have to make changes to stay profitable amid elevated production costs.
“The last six months have been challenging for our industry given the combined writers and actors strikes in the US,” Netflix said in its earnings release. “While we have reached an agreement with the WGA, negotiations with SAG-AFTRA are ongoing. We’re committed to resolving the remaining issues as quickly as possible so everyone can return to work making movies and TV shows that audiences will love.”