Netflix beats expectations with 5m new subscribers

Netflix picked up 5.1 million subscribers in the third quarter, beating Wall Street estimates by more than 1 million users, sending the shares sharply higher.
Investors had expected Netflix to sign up 4 million subscribers in the three month period to the end of September. New programming during the quarter included the murder-mystery The Perfect Couple , Kaos, a modern take on Greek mythology, and the romantic comedy Nobody Wants This.
Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, California, and was founded in 1997 as a DVD postal service, reported quarterly revenue of $9.825 billion, just ahead of the $9.769 billion consensus forecast.
The shares were $30.49, or 4.3 per cent, higher at $717.01 after the earnings report. Since the start of the year the stock has risen by 47 per cent.
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Netflix is the leader in a competitive streaming market vying for share with deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon Prime, Apple+ and Disney+.
The company, which clamped down on password sharing last year, has been trying to shift investor attention away from subscriber sign-ups to other ­metrics, including revenue growth and profit margins. The company said its operating margin hit 30 per cent in the quarter, compared with 22 per cent a year earlier.
“We’ve delivered on our plan to re-accelerate our business, and we’re ­excited to finish the year strong with a great fourth-quarter slate,” the company said in a letter to shareholders.
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Netflix, which now has 282.7 million subscribers, is working to raise revenue from its new ad-supported plans but has said it does not expect advertising to become a primary growth driver until 2026. In the third quarter, the research company Antenna reported that Netflix added more than 1.9 million subscribers to its ad-supported service.
Part of the plan centres around live events including sports, a big draw for advertisers. In November, Netflix will stream a fight between the YouTube star Jake Paul and the former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson, followed by its first NFL games in December.