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Netflix stock closed the week at its highest level since last April, rising more than 8% Friday to end at $342.50 after the company reported strong subscriber growth and executed a smooth handoff atop its executive ranks.

The Oscar nominations this week set off a new round of speculation about corporate image: Does it matter that Netflix’s potential Oscar take had dropped to 16 from 36 in 2020?

Interesting news on the streaming front: Netflix reported its Q4 2022 earnings yesterday, and the platform outperformed its goal for new subscribers to close out the year. Variety reports that the numbers exceed Netflix’s target of 4.5 million additions with 7.66 new subscribers.

Ted Sarandos addressed Netflix’s limited theatrical release of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery during the streamer’s Q4 earnings call on Thursday, echoing executive chairman Reed Hastings‘ previous remarks that releasing the film in theaters was meant more as a promotional tactic for the streamer.

Netflix beat forecasts for subscriber gains for the fourth quarter and also edged revenue estimates, but pressure on earnings per share reflected broader challenges in the streaming business.

Netflix has a new Co-CEO.

EXCLUSIVE: Some were expecting Netflix to curb their acquisitions here in Park City, but, as we told you earlier this morning, never count them out of the Sundance marketplace. Before its premiere in the midnight section tonight, the Reed Hastings-Ted Sarandos-run streamer has scooped up a majority of global rights on the Australian horror movie, Run Rabbit Run, starring 2x Emmy nominated Succession actress Sarah Snook. XYZ Films, which co-funded the film, brokered the deal with Netflix on behalf of the filmmakers. 

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $20 million to Minerva University, a school focused on educating what it describes as “new generations of wise leaders and purpose-driven entrepreneurs” from dozens of countries.

Disney + Basic, a cheaper version of the 3-year-old streaming service, has officially gone live.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos affirmed recent comments from the company that they are not — despite strong indications from insiders as recently as last month — intending to bid on sports rights.

Ben Affleck took a swipe at Netflix's 'assembly line process' of production as he spoke about the launch of his new movie studio with Matt Damon this week.The Oscar-winner, 50 - who is married to Jennifer Lopez, 53 -  spoke of his desire to focus on smaller dramas rather than huge action films, as he questioned Netflix's focus on 'quantity' over quality.Speaking at the New York Times' Dealbook Summit, the actor, who has launched Artists Equity with Damon and RedBird Capital Partners, said: 'If you ask [Netflix co-CEO and chairman] Reed Hastings…he’d say, "Hey, we went for quantity to establish a footprint." 'I’m sure there’s wisdom in that and I’m sure they had a great strategy, but I would have said, "How are we going to make 50 great movies? How is that possible?" There’s no committee big enough. There aren’t enough — you just can’t do it.' Comment: Ben Affleck took a swipe at Netflix's 'assembly line process' of production as he spoke about the launch of his new movie studio with Matt Damon this week (March 2022)'It’s a thing that requires attention and dedication and work and resists the assembly line process. '[Netflix’s head of original films] Scott Stuber is a really talented, smart guy who I really like…but it’s an impossible job.' He continued: 'There’s bigger audience for action movies than there is for small dramas.

Audiences expected Rian Johnson to deliver in 2019 with his sleuth comedy “Knives Out.” But nobody expected the film to become a runaway hit. In short, the film raked at the box office, making $311 million on a $40 million budget.

Here’s another bucket of cold water for the budding romance between Netflix and exhibitors.

Elon Musk’s back may be against the wall as Twitter’s new owner, but he has plenty of friends in high places, especially in the tech sector.

Ben Affleck says his newly minted studio Artists Equity, in partnership with Matt Damon, is going for films that are commercial but smart, that acknowledge popular tastes, but that “people remember 20 years later.”

Liberty Media chairman John Malone slammed AT&T, praised Reed Hastings and affirmed his faith in the Warner Bros. Discovery team led by David Zaslav amid the drama and red ink of today’s streaming wars.

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

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Just over three years ago, Netflix unequivocally shot down the idea that it would ever roll out an ad-supported streaming service. “When you read speculation that we are moving into selling advertising, be confident that this is false,” the streamer said in its second-quarter 2019 investor letter. “We believe we will have a more valuable business in the long term by staying out of competing for ad revenue and instead entirely focusing on competing for viewer satisfaction.” Clearly, Netflix’s thinking about advertising has changed. Both Netflix and Disney+ are launching ad-based tiers this fall, seeking to broaden their addressable markets and tap into a new revenue stream as subscriber growth has slowed — in Netflix’s case, it lost 1.2 million in the first half of 2022, compared with a net gain of 5.5 million in the prior-year period.

Netflix password to your partner, gran, or yoga instructor?Well, bad news: Netflix is onto you, and could start charging you an extra fee for it as soon as next year.The streaming giant has reportedly said it plans to add extra fees for those who share their passwords with friends and family, in a bid to crack down on account sharing. READ NEXT: Does Apple have a Black Friday sale - and when is the best time to bag a deal? The announcement follows the launch of a cheaper, ad-supported tier for Netflix which sees people pay a lower monthly subscription in exchange for watching ads. In a letter to shareholders, Netflix said: "We've landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we'll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023."After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create subaccounts ("extra member") if they want to pay for family and friends."The move follows trials in Latin America which saw Netflix charge subscribers to pay an extra $2.99 (£2.66) per extra household streaming Netflix.

Netflix may not be in the live sports business but it certainly wants viewers to know that it’s got some content around the edges.

Netflix’s ad-supported tier will be missing certain series and movie titles at launch, the company conceded today in announcing details about the rollout.

More than three years after Reed Hastings said Netflix wants to be on BARB, the UK ratings agency has its wish.

We may see a huge change in the way Netflix releases its shows, as it could axe one of it's most iconic features.

Netflix has batted down a report about aggressive moves in its rollout of a cheaper ad-supported tier as “speculation.”

After a decade-plus of having the streaming field virtually to itself, Netflix now faces historic levels of competition. Disney and other media and tech rivals have narrowed the gap, making for a rocky 2022 marked by subscriber and stock price declines.

Netflix have announced they will charge for password sharing in an additional five countries, as the streaming giant continues to crackdown on the practice.Today (July 22), news broke that Netflix have asked customers in five more countries – Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic – to pay additional fees if they are sharing their password with viewers outside of their household. The additional fees vary between countries but users can expect to pay no more than an additional US$2.99.According to IGN, the extra cost won’t affect the use of the streaming service from mobile devices.

Netflix boss reckons streamers will have killed off traditional telly in just 10 years.Co-CEO Reed Hastings has declared that “linear TV” is headed for extinction thanks to the get-what-you-want-now generation of new online TV services.He made the prediction despite the streamer recently haemorrhaging a million subscribers, mostly due to the cost of living crisis.READ NEXT: Instagram adds new hidden posts you have to pay to seeMr Hastings said: “It’s definitely the end of linear TV over the next five to 10 years.“And, as Nielsen will announce on Thursday, our share of US TV viewing reached an all-time high of 7.7% in June (versus 6.6% in June 2021), demonstrating our ability to grow our engagement share as we continue to improve our service.”Netflix reported a loss of about 970,000 subscribers in the last quarter.The streamer insisted it was a “better-than-expected” result.There had been a projection it faced losing around two million users in the three months between April and July as living costs surge.Netflix’s stocks also plummeted by about 37% in April.Hastings said: “We’re talking about, you know, losing one million instead of losing two million so you know our excitement is tempered.”The subscriber losses reported by the company on Tuesday are the biggest in its 10-year history.It reported the highest numbers of cancellations, around a million, in America US and Canada.It was followed by a loss of a smaller number of subscribers in Europe.This was offset by a gain of over one million customers in the Asia/Pacific region.Hastings said execution “really well on the content side”, with “lots of titles”, had still led to “lots of viewing”.He pointed to the new series of Stranger Things as one of the company’s biggest

Netflix executives see content spending of about $17 billion in 2021 lingering there for the next several year through 2023.

The economics of Netflix’s forthcoming ad-supported tier will be more favorable than those of its primary ad-free one, one senior executive indicated during the company’s second-quarter earnings interview.

Coming off a better quarter than anticipated, Netflix founder Reed Hastings today was showing some swagger and a lot of thanks to the first part of the latest season of Stranger Things.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix co-CEO Reed Hastings declared during the streamer’s Q2 earnings interview Tuesday that linear television will go the way of the dinosaur within the next decade.“It’s definitely the end of linear TV over the next 5 to 10 years,” Hastings said while discussing Netflix’s financial and subscriber results on the pre-recorded Q&A, which came on the heels of the reveal the streamer lost 970,000 subscribers in Q2. That loss was actually a win for Netflix, which had originally expected to lose 2 million subscribers by the end of June 30.Though very bold, Hastings thoughts on the state of linear television are hardly a shock given his position at the top of the world’s biggest streamer — and they carry forward data touted by Netflix earlier Tuesday.

The recent pink-slipping of hundreds of employees cost Netflix a bundle, with more likely to come.

Netflix is moving further into the world of animation with the acquisition of Australian studio Animal Logic.

Netflix said it’s targeting an early 2023 launch for a cheaper advertising tier as it seeks to stem subscriber losses and hopefully turn them back up. It will roll the plan out in a handful of markets first but didn’t say which ones.

Netflix will reveal its financial results from the second quarter on Tuesday afternoon, and the outcome is expected to set the tone for one of the most anxious and uncertain earnings seasons in years.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSUN VALLEY, Idaho — The moguls have arrived.On Tuesday, dozens of titans of the business, media and tech worlds came out to play at the Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho for the start of Allen & Co.’s annual meeting of movers and shakers.The invitation-only conference will include three days of seminars and meetings that are held away from the prying eyes of the public, which kick off Wednesday morning. So today was all about meeting and greeting each other at the posh retreat in Idaho’s picturesque Sawtooth Mountains.Arrivals began at the Sun Valley Lodge around 11 a.m.