Netflix Bounces Back With 2.4 Million Subscribers in Q3

Team high school sweethearts? Kristin Cavallari and Stephen Colletti’s former Laguna Beach costars are just like Us — with many of them shipping the exes.

Ryan Murphy is continuing his reign over Netflix.

While Chad Stahelski wraps up post-production on “John Wick: Chapter 4,” he has one of his next projects lined up at Netflix. Deadline reports that Stahleski will direct the streamer’s feature film adaptation of the “Black Samurai” novels, about an American soldier who learns the way of the samurai.

Rodolphe Belmer, the former Canal+ CEO on the verge of heading up French network TF1, has stepped down from the Netflix Board.

Welcome back to Insider, Jesse Whittock guiding you through this time around. It’s been a week of excitement from the international TV industry in Cannes and another one of utter chaos at Downing Street in the UK. All the latest news and views follow, so let’s go.

Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos tossed cold water on hopes that the streamer’s recent deal with major cinema chains for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery could be the start of something bigger.

Netflix is spending around $17B on content this year and next but has hinted that it may boost this after a strong quarter.

In a third-quarter earnings interview dominated by talk of advertising, top Netflix execs described it as a “sprint” to capture “a whole new audience” and a bid to woo advertisers affected by “the collapse of linear television.”

Netflix said today that its closely watched paid membership number is becoming “just one component” of total revenue growth, so as of the fourth quarter it will stop offering forward-looking subscriber forecasts.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After two straight quarters of subscriber losses, Netflix returned to growth in the third quarter of 2022 — and told investors it’s expecting a strong Q4 to finish the year, even though it doesn’t expect big gains right away from the launch of its cheaper, ad-supported plans. The streaming giant reported 2.41 million net new paid subscribers in Q3, including a gain of 100,000 in the U.S./Canada region, to stand at 223.1 million worldwide as of the end of September. That handily topped Netflix’s previous forecast of a 1 million pickup for the period. For Q4, Netflix expects to gain 4.5 million new streaming customers, compared with 8.3 million in the year-earlier quarter. Netflix Basic With Ads is slated to launch in the U.S. on Nov. 3 and priced at $6.99 per month — three dollars less than the regular Basic plan. Similar ad tiers are also coming next month to 11 other countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain and the U.K.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix will no longer share projected subscriber targets in upcoming earnings reports — a closely tracked metric among investors — as the company looks to shift the narrative to its financial performance. Starting with Netflix’s fourth-quarter 2022 earnings report in January 2023, it will not provide guidance for the next quarter (Q1 of 2023). The company will continue to provide guidance for revenue, operating income, operating margin, net income, EPS and fully diluted shares outstanding for the following quarter, but not paid membership. Click here to sign up for Variety’s free Strictly Business newsletter covering earnings, financial news, and more. “As discussed in previous letters, we are increasingly focused on revenue as our primary top-line metric,” Netflix said in its Q3 shareholder letter. “This will become particularly important heading into 2023 as we develop new revenue streams like advertising and paid sharing, where membership is just one component of our revenue growth.”

Ryan Murphy is the producer to beat for this week’s Netflix Top 10, as his latest true crime title “The Watcher” dethroned his previous hit “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” with 125 million hours viewed. “Dahmer” still sat at No. 2 on the English TV list, racking up another 122.8 million viewing hours in its fourth week on the chart.“The Watcher,” starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as a couple caught in an unnerving stalker’s web, is a seven-episode limited series based on the story of the real-life couple who was harassed by the titular unnamed individual.

Netflix is to bring in time and date advertisements this November, the company has confirmed.

On Monday, the exhibition trade org the National Association of Cinemas announced that it’s longtime CEO and President John Fithian of 24 years was retiring.

Viewers have watched Netflix continually raise its subscription fee in recent years, but now the streamer is set to introduce a new version that will cost significantly less — for those who don’t mind sitting through some commercials, that is.

Netflix is adding options to their subscription model.

Netflix is adding options to their subscription model.