According to research firm Antenna, despite a ban on password sharing on the Netflix platform in the US, 2.6 million new users were added in July, and in June the undisputed leader recorded a record number of almost 3.5 million new subscribers. These are the highest increases among video streaming services and, of course, mean huge profits. The increase in subscribers to Netflix clearly confirms that the implementation of paid password sharing is indeed working.

The report shows that nearly 23% of all new Netflix subscribers used an ad-supported plan, up 4% from June 2023 and the best sales performance for this plan since its launch in November 2022. In May this year, paid sharing was already implemented on Netflix in 100 countries.

Netflix also announced that the platform added 5.9 million new subscribers worldwide in the second quarter of this year (1.17 million new subscribers in Canada alone between April and June this year). The platform's Q2 profit was $8.2bn (versus a forecast of $8.3bn). This represents a 2.7% year-on-year increase in revenue. For Q3, the company is forecasting revenues of $8.5bn, which will represent a 7% increase on last year. 

Just before announcing its Q2 results, the largest streaming platform also announced the removal of ads from its cheapest package in the US and UK, Netflix Basic. This was to mitigate the difference in the expected revenue decline in Q2. This may not have had the expected results, but in the long run it could help Netflix increase its average revenue per user. 

The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May, was recently joined by The Screen Actors Guild. In my opinion, this move could hinder the plans of all the big video streaming platforms. Netflix has said it is well prepared to maintain its position even if the strike continues for months. After all, it can continue to rely on countries where unions are not on strike for the production of original content. Let's remember that streamers have a huge advantage that TV networks did not have at the time of the screenwriters' strike in 2007, a huge library of content still available to watch. We will see what the future holds, but without either original or proven content, it will be difficult for all the big players to maintain an audience. 

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