Netflix posted sharply higher third-quarter earnings Tuesday thanks to a stronger slate of titles, including 鈥淪quid Game,鈥� the dystopian survival drama from 麻豆视频 Korea that the company says became its biggest-ever TV show.
The company has ramped up production, rebounding from pandemic-induced delays in the first half of the year. It's also looking beyond movies and TV and said it plans to fund 鈥渘ew growth opportunities" such as video games, which are being tested in some markets.
鈥淚t remains very early days for this initiative and, like other content categories we鈥檝e expanded into, we plan to try different types of games, learn from our members and improve our game library," the company said.
And as it faces saturation in the U.S. market, Netflix is focusing on growing its international subscriber numbers. For instance, it launched a free mobile plan in Kenya, in the hopes it will get more people in the country to sign up for paid memberships.
In all, Netflix said its subscriber base grew 9% from a year earlier, to 213.6 million, surpassing its own projections.
Netflix earned $1.45 billion, or $3.19 per share, in the latest quarter. That鈥檚 up from $789.9 million or $1.79 per share, a year earlier.
Revenue grew 16% to $7.48 billion from $6.44 billion.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $2.56 per share on revenue of $7.48 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
Shares of the Los Gatos, California-based company fell about 1% in after-hours trading.
Netflix also said Tuesday that later this year it will change how it reports its viewership metrics. Instead of how many accounts watch its titles, it will report the number of hours viewed. Netflix said this is a 鈥�'slightly better indicator of the overall success of our titles and member satisfaction.鈥�
鈥淚t also matches how outside services measure TV viewing and gives proper credit to rewatching," Netflix said.
The company made no mention in its earnings press release of the fallout surrounding a recent Dave Chapelle special, which premiered earlier this month after the third quarter ended.
Netflix said Friday that it had fired an employee for disclosing confidential financial information about what it paid for the Chappelle鈥檚 comedy special 鈥淭he Closer,鈥� which employees and advocacy groups condemned as being transphobic and harmful to transgender people.
The employee, who wasn鈥檛 named, shared 鈥渃onfidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company,鈥� a Netflix statement said.
The media watchdog group GLAAD said that 鈥渁nti-LGBTQ content鈥� violates Netflix鈥檚 policy to reject programs that incite hate or violence.
However, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told managers in an internal memo that the show doesn鈥檛 cross 鈥渢he line on hate鈥� and will remain on the streaming service.
Transgender employees and their allies planning to stage a walkout Wednesday in protest.
Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
