Despite the growing competition in the online streaming space, Netflix seems to be doing really well as the company’s 2019 fourth-quarter results showed it has added 8.8 million subscribers. This is more than the 7.6 million it projected.
According to Netflix’s latest earnings report, it has 167 million paid members worldwide with more than 100 million outside the United States. It also reported stronger-than-expected financials, with revenue of $5.47 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $1.30.
Streaming war: Netflix no doubt had more competition towards the end of last year with the launch of Disney+ and Apple TV+ and the competition would get even stiffer with the launch of WarnerMedia’s HBOMax and NBCUniversal’s Peacock this year.
However, Netflix doesn’t seem deterred by the teeming rivals and this is evident in its results.
Recall that Nairametrics reported when the online streaming giant addressed the streaming war. In its letter to shareholders, Netflix stated that there is ample room for many services to grow as linear TV wanes and that it’s viewing per membership grew both globally and in the US on a year over year basis, consistent with recent quarters.
Netflix also added that people were more interested in its original series – “The Witcher” than Disney+’s “Mandalorian,” Apple TV+’s “Morning Show” or Amazon’s “Jack Ryan” on the Google Search Trends.
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Although platforms like Disney+ are only available in some countries currently, Netflix argued that the results would not be any different if Disney+ was available globally.
More details: Netflix is confident in its platform as it further said that instead of Apple and Disney taking audience share from them, they all could collectively take audience share from linear TV.
“In our view, the likely outcome from the launch of these new services will be to accelerate the shift from linear TV to on-demand consumption of entertainment. Just like the evolution from broadcast TV to cable, these once-in-a-generation changes are very large and open up big, new opportunities for many players.
“For example, for the first few decades of cable, networks like TBS, USA, ESPN, MTV, and Discovery didn’t take much audience share from each other, but instead, they collectively took audience share from broadcast viewing,” Netflix said.