Netflix said that at the end of the third quarter, it had more than 223 million subscribers around the world slightly. This is up about 2.4 million from the end of the second quarter.
After-hours trading on the earnings news sent Netflix shares up by more than 14% to $275.80. In an earnings letter, the company said, “After a tough first half, we think we’re on track to speed up growth again.”
“Our competitors are spending a lot of money to get more subscribers and keep people interested, but it’s hard to build a big, successful streaming business, so we think they’re all losing money.”
Netflix also said that it made a profit of $1.4 billion on sales of $7.9 billion, which is a little less than it made during the same time last year when it made more money. The change in growth comes as Netflix gets ready to launch a subscription option paid for by ads in November in 12 countries.
In a briefing, Netflix’s chief operating officer, Greg Peters, said that the new “Basic with Ads” subscriptions would cost $6.99 in the US. This is three dollars less than the essential option that doesn’t have ads.
Peters said, “The timing is great because we are really at a turning point in the entertainment industry and how it is changing. Now, streaming has more TV time in the United States than both broadcast and cable.”
