Netflix recently published its Q4-2023 financial results, beating industry expectations by finishing the year with over 260 million subscribers (up 13% from 2022) and revenue growth of 7%.
The results showed a significant increase in subscriber numbers from non-english speaking regions such as Asia Pacific (7%, highest adds) and LATAM (5%). Show Tracker reveals over half of Netflix digital originals are non-english language, demonstrating the streaming service’s focus on providing local content to its customers. The top three non-English language programming are of Spanish (22%), Japanese (11%) and Korean (10%) origin. According to Netflix’s Jan-Jun 2023 engagement report, these types programming were also well-received worldwide, with Korean drama 'The Glory' (622.8m hours viewed) being the highest ranking (3rd place) non-English show.
Netflix also announced its intention to invest more in content as opposed to its streaming rivals. The global streamer is entering into more deals with major US studios to expand their films and series catalogue while also expanding their other offerings (games, live and sports-adjacent programming) as Netflix just recently closed a 10 year deal for WWE programming.
According to Netflix, 45% of viewing in the first six months of 2023 was from acquired content. NBCUniversal and Warner have been a consistent provider of content for the streaming service from 2021, with Warner active in selling second windows to the streamer. Paramount has also started selling its second window rights to Netflix with shows such as 'Fire Country' and 'Yellowjackets' already premiering internationally on the service and has even licensed out Paramount+ original 'Star Trek: Prodigy' to Netflix after it was cancelled.
As studios are now more open to licensing content, Netflix will look to increase acquisitions with deals already made last year with NBCUniversal for its procedural 'Suits' and Warner's HBO programming and movies, as well as finalising a deal with Disney for content from ABC, FX and ESPN. Studios are also seeing increased traffic of their shows after premiering on Netflix with 'Suits' gaining the top spot on Nielsen’s streaming top 10 for three months and HBO show 'Ballers' also entering the list after being released on the service.
On the movie side, Netflix continues to increase both acquisitions from major US studios and its original productions. Digital original movies nearly doubled from 2021 with Netflix premiering over 150 movies in 2023, scoring 18 Oscar nominations this year, seven of which were for ‘Maestro’, a Leonard Bernstein biopic.
Netflix also continued to increase its movie offerings with NBCUniversal and Sony remaining as it biggest provider for content. The streaming service secured a first window deal with Sony for exclusive rights to stream the studios 2022 slate of movies for nine months in US and extended its deal with NBCUniversal to premiere its animated feature films in US (split Pay 1 rights with Peacock).
Netflix has certainly showed continued growth in their earnings and subscriber numbers, outperforming industry expectation. With plans to expand content offerings with lucrative deals and a rise in viewer subscriptions (including a 70% growth in ad-tier memberships), the streaming giant’s outlook for the next year looks bright.
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