Netflix’s quarterly results have been a headline-hogger in 2022, and mostly for the wrong reasons. As we see them deliver an impressive rebound on subscription numbers in Q4 of 2022, they still have only lackluster financial gains to offer. Our industry expert and entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, breaks it down further.
7.66M New Subscribers Globally
With the company taking substantial dings in their share price in Q1 and Q2 for subscriber losses, the addition of 7.66M new subscribers globally, for a cumulative total of 230.75M, isn’t to be sniffed at. Especially when Netflix itself was only anticipating 4.5M and Wall Street only stretched it to 5M.
Much of this can be tied to the launch of their new ad-supported programming tier, which joined their stable in November.
Lackluster Financials
Accompanying this boost, however, was some rather dingy financials. Earnings per share totaled just 12c, from $7.52B in revenue and only a net income of $55M. If you’re taking notes, that’s the lowest since 2016. It’s not far off Wall Street predictions, which was $7.85B- but that EPS figure was anticipated to be 45c. Netflix themselves originally predicted 36c and $163M in net income. The company was keen to blame dollar depreciation against the Euro for much of its woes.
They did meet their internal revenue estimate, giving operating profit of $550M over $330M. It’s tough not to compare that EPS to 2021’s Q4 $1.33. Nor can we ignore that the downturn in their stock price earlier this year all happened against a much stronger balance sheet, too.
However, they did also produce a very strong slate for Q4, with Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Wednesday doing incredibly well, The Crown holding strong, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery all attracting a lot of attention.
Overall, it was a mixed bag. Where to from here? It’s impossible to say, so let’s just look to Q1 for now.
Film and Television 