Netflix, a trailblazer in the streaming space, saw its shares rise 16.23% on Thursday despite the strikes by Hollywood’s writers and actresses. Netflix gained more quarterly subscribers than it had in the previous three years.
Using its global production power and its competitors’ economic downturns in the media, Netflix attracted 247 million users in the third quarter, up almost 9 million from the previous three months.
It was the biggest profit since early 2020 when the COVID-19 epidemic spurred unheard-of growth.
At $402.37, Netflix shares are headed for their largest percentage rise in almost three years in a single day.
In a report, Bernstein analysts said, “The management deserves an Emmy for managing investor expectations,” they added that paid-sharing has given Netflix access to a larger-than-expected pool of potential customers.
Walt Disney (DIS.N), Paramount Global (PARA.O), and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) are among the media competitors whose results will demonstrate the effects of the industry’s months-long labor stoppage, which started in May with a walkout by Hollywood writers.
Writers Guild of America members settled this month, but actors who went on strike in July still need to be done.
While competing streaming services delayed releases and offered fewer foreign-language programming than Netflix, which could produce in more than 50 nations and languages, U.S. broadcast networks packed their autumn lineups with reality series and repeats.
“Netflix is positioned better than most entertainment companies in plugging programming gaps from the writers’ and actors’ strikes due to its large international presence,” Insider Intelligence lead analyst Ross Benes said.
“With original U.S. productions delayed and other T.V. and streaming companies no longer holding exclusive titles with vise grips, expect Netflix to revert to its past when many of its biggest shows were licensed,” Benes stated.
A joint effort by Netflix’s U.S. and Japanese content teams, the live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga series “One Piece” became the number-one show in 84 countries, surpassing even the highly regarded sci-fi series “Stranger Things.”
Netflix is gaining new viewers for numerous television shows licensed from rival media companies, including the courtroom thriller “Suits,” which debuted on the streaming service in the summer and broke viewership records when it debuted on the USA Network in 2019.
In the investor video on Wednesday, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated, “We can take ‘Suits,’ which has played on other streaming services, and pop it right into the center of the culture in a huge way because of our distribution footprint and our recommendation system.”
Comparable to how Netflix handled “prolonged and pretty unpredictable production interruptions” during the pandemic, Sarandos noticed similarities as negotiations between the union representing actors and performers and major studios broke down this week.
“These are the times that I’m glad we have such a rich and deep and broad program selection,” Sarandos stated.
However, disruptions from strikes do not spare Netflix. American series like the phenomenon “Stranger Things” have been put on hold until the performers get back to work.
According to Sophie Lund-Yates, chief equities analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, Netflix “doesn’t have the same back catalog as Disney+ to fall back on,” thus delays for some of its most excellent episodes are “problematic.”
