Netflix finishes strong
After posting losses earlier in the year, Netflix rebounded in Q4 by adding over 7.5 million paid subscribers globally, including nearly 1 million domestic paid subs. While better than forecasted, the company still posted losses of just under 1 million for all of 2022. The strong Q4 was likely due to popular shows such as Wednesday, Harry & Megan and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and the company’s recent rollout of its ad-supported tier. Another initiative, starting later in Q1, will be paid sharing of accounts. Netflix estimates over 100 million HHs are using the service for free by sharing login credentials.
The NPD Take:
- Where past success was largely driven by programming, growth in this saturated market will require business strategies such as tiered product offerings and tighter controls on sharing. Effective implementation will be key to success in 2023.
Samsung TV Plus mulls expansion
Samsung is looking to launch its free TV Plus service on competitor’s TV sets to help increase viewership. It’s reported that Samsung is in talks with TCL about integrating Samsung TV Plus into their TVs. Samsung TV Plus launched in 2015 and streams a total of 1,800 channels worldwide with access to over 220 free channels for U.S. customers. Samsung is not the only manufacturer to expand. LG also recently rolled out a new version of its webOS streaming TV platform that incorporates a new hub for third-party partners.
The NPD Take:
- The opportunity lies in partnerships with TV OEMS that don’t operate their own FAST service as there is a mutual benefit to both companies. And, for Samsung, growth will require distribution beyond company owned hardware. Expansion was just a matter of time.
Peacock grows subscriber base
Peacock grew its subscriber base to more than 20 million paid subs, doubling the amount from a year ago, while nearly tripling its revenue to $2.1 billion. This growth was primarily driven by live sports, new films and originals and yielded the strongest quarterly result since launching in 2020 with 5 million paid subs. Despite this growth, NBCU announced higher losses mainly due to the cost of new content as well as severance costs due to restructurings and layoffs.
The NPD Take:
- Peacock launched with a tiered offering giving the company a head-start over those that are just entering the ad-supported market. Bolstering the content offering while controlling costs will be key to near term success.