Netflix exceeds subscriber expectations, but Reed Hastings steps down again

Netflix’s latest quarterly results meeting was a roller coaster. The streaming platform revealed on Thursday, January 19 that it topped all subscriber forecasts for the final months of the year, adding 7.66 million subscribers. They expected 4.5 million new users. In total they already have 230.75 million subscribers, even more than the 227.59 million they intended to have at the end of the year. Europe is the territory that is growing the most (3.2 million new accounts).

With this fantastic data and having dominated the conversation quite a bit thanks to the latest hits of ‘DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ and the previews of powerful titles such as ‘Wednesday’ or ‘Daggers in the Back: The Glass Onion Mystery ‘ , Netflix closes the “annus horribilis” that was supposed to be 2022, the first year it had to announce a loss of subscribers. “2022 has been a difficult year, with a tortuous start but with a more promising ending. We believe we have a clear path to re-accelerate revenue growth: We will continue to improve all aspects of Netflix, launching pay-per-share and building our offering with ads. As always, our North Star will continue to keep our members happy and create even greater profits over time.” the company said, emphasizing its two biggest bets for 2023: shared account monetization and advertising.

What will most concern users will be the purpose of sharing passwords between family members or friends who do not live in the same house, a detail that Netflix indicates is found in the platform’s terms and conditions. They ensure that more than 100 million households share their account with people who do not live in the same place, almost half of the total number of users of the platform. While they didn’t specify details on when they will start taking steps to limit shared accounts, they do warn that they will “subscribers from many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with”.

Netflix declined to reveal its subscriber goal for Q1 2023, but announces it for the future no more spending handfuls of money to build a catalog: “Now that we have built our original programming initiative over a decade and successfully scaled it up, we are past the most intense spending phase. As a result, we believe we will now begin to generate positive annual cash and sustainable cash flow. now on”. Their forecast, even taking into account the current uncertainty in many territories, is to reach at least $3 billion in cash flow this year.

Reed Hastings steps down as co-CEO

Despite the good results, the warning to investors came with a real bombshell: Reed Hastings is leaving his position as CEO of the company. Hastings has been with Netflix since 1997, when he co-founded the company as a mail order movie rental service. It was he who promoted the leap to the Internet and streaming. Hastings himself explained that he had been preparing for the transition for years and had chosen Greg Peters, who was the company’s chief operations officer, as his replacement.. Peters will serve as co-CEO with Ted Sarandos continuing in his role. Bela Bajaria, head of global television, has been promoted to head of content, and Scott Stuber, head of global cinema, becomes the new president of Netflix Films.

Hastings won’t head Netflix, but he won’t be leaving the company as he will continue to lead the board as chief executive officer. This change represents a significant cut in your salary.. He will go from approximately $3 million in annual salary and $17.3 million in stock to a base salary of $500,000 and approximately $2.5 million in stock. The time that this change of position leaves him, he intends to invest in philanthropic activities and “when Netflix stock is good”.