Netflix has added 8.76 million new subscribers in the third quarter of 2023, driving the streamer’s global number to 247.15 million.
In EMEA, the streamer added 3.95 million new subscribers during the quarter.
In a letter to its shareholders, Netflix attributed much of the growth to adoption of its new ad-supported tier, stating, “ads plan membership [is] up almost 70 per cent quarter-over-quarter — and 30 per cent of sign ups in our ads countries are, on average, to our ads plan, with more work to do to scale this business.”
However, the tech giant did admit the last six months has been “challenging” for the industry due to the Hollywood strikes. “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,” added the letter.
There has long been speculation that the streamer could look to increase its subscriber numbers by breaking into the sports rights market, especially following the announcement this week of its first live sport event.
However, co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts that while Netflix is in the sports business, “we’re in the part that we bring the most value to, which is the drama of sport.”
“I think about it as a great way of extending those great drama of sport brands that we’ve created,” Sarandos added. “But [there’s] no core change in our live sports strategy or licensing live sports.”
Netflix could look to develop more live event programming though, said Sarandos, adding that the company is “investing heavily” in live capabilities. “As demand grows for that and we find different ways that the live-ness can be part of the creative storytelling, we want to be able to do that at big scale,” he added.
