Netflix adds 13M subscribers in Q4, to continue expanding ad business

Streaming platform Netflixsaid it added nearly 13 million subscribers during the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street estimates and setting a new record for itself with nearly 260.8 million paid subscribers.

Of the new subscriber base, nearly 2.91 million subscribers were from the Asia Pacific region.

The company made nearly $8,883 million in revenue this quarter, a nearly 12% increase on a year-on-year basis.

The company highlighted the success of several non-English titles as a contributing factor to its growth. Non-English programming includes The Railway Men from India that got nearly 11.2 million views this year.

However, net income for the quarter shrunk to $938 million compared with $1,677 million in the third quarter. It also made $55 million in the same period from a year earlier.

Netflix said it will continue to invest in its ads business, which it piloted in select markets. The company will also phase out some of the basic plans in these regions, beginning with Canada and the UK, Netflix said in its letter to shareholders.

Deal with WWE

Meanwhile, the streaming firm shared that it had entered a multi-billion dollar deal with WWE for a 10-year contract to stream its flagship show Raw. Netflix spent over $5 billion to acquire these rights, as per media reports.

"We believe that WWE has been historically under-distributed outside of North America. And this is a global deal. So we can help them and they can help us build that fandom around the world," said Co-CEO Theodore A Saranos in the earnings call. This fits into the core ethos of sports, he added.