Netflix Q4 Earnings Get Rave Reviews

Five big questions re: Netflix ad business:
1) How many streaming subscribers does Netflix have?
2) Where is the growth coming from?
3) How much money do they currently make from each streaming subscriber?
4) What share of new sign-ups comes from the ad-supported offering?
5) What share of streaming viewership does Netflix account for?

Big question #1:  How many streaming subscribers does Netflix have?

Netflix subscribers (YoY growth):
1) 2007 – 7.5M
2) 2008 – 9.4M (↑ 26%)
3) 2009 – 12.3M (↑ 31%)
4) 2010 – 20.0M (↑ 63%)
5) 2011 – 23.5M (↑ 18%)
6) 2012 – 33.3M (↑ 41%)
7) 2013 – 44.4M (↑ 33%)
8) 2014 – 57.4M (↑ 29%) 
9) 2015 – 74.8M (↑ 30%)
10) 2016 – 93.8M (↑ 25%)
11) 2017 – 110.6M (↑ 18%)
12) 2018 – 139.3M (↑ 26%)
13) 2019 – 167.1M (↑ 20%)
14) 2020 – 203.7M (↑ 22%)
15) 2021 – 221.8M (↑ 9%)
16) 2022 – 230.8M (↑ 4%)

Big question #2: Where is the growth coming from?

Netflix subscriber growth (% of total):
1) International – 6.8M (88%)
2) U.S./Canada – 910K (12%)
3) Total – 7.7M

Netflix subscribers (% of total):
1) International – 156.5M (68%)
2) U.S./Canada – 74.3M (32%)
3) Total – 230.8M

Big question #3: How much money do they currently make from each streaming subscriber?
Monthly ARPU for Netflix in U.S./Canada (YoY growth):
1) 2019-Q4 – $13.22
2) 2020-Q4 – $13.51 (↑ 2%)
2) 2021-Q4 – $14.78 (↑ 9%)
3) 2022-Q4 – $16.23 (↑ 10%)

Big question #4: What share of new sign-ups comes from the ad-supported offering?

Quick answer: Ad-supported plans accounted for 9% of new signups in November.

Share of Netflix sign-ups by plan type according to Antenna:
1) Basic – 41%
2) Premium – 25%
3) Standard – 24%
4) Basic w/ Ads – 9%

Quote from Reed Hastings – Executive Chair @ Netflix:
“The big thing that I missed is I was on the Facebook board, so I bought in for a decade to the belief that systems relying on data were going to be able to do higher CPMs than anyone else.  So Google and Facebook were going to mop up the world — and they have in non-TV advertising.

What I failed to understand is that there is a lot of TV advertising that now couldn’t find the viewers because the 18- to 49-[year old] segment had moved on and were not watching linear TV.  Advertisers were desperate for avenues in connected TV and internet, but Netflix was still on the sidelines.”

Big question #5: What share of streaming viewership does Netflix account for?

Quick answer: Netflix accounts for 8% of total TV time and 20% of streaming TV time.

Interesting: Netflix presented a similar graphic for the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, and Poland.

FYI: Netflix accounts for every show on the top 10 highest weekly viewing totals!