While not entirely comparable, at this point it seems fair to say that Netflix is basically to streaming subscription video what Google is to web search engines. Far and away the dominant force in the streaming industry, Netflix of course started as a way to rent DVDs by mail, but eventually began to pivot more towards delivering content entirely online in the mid-2000s, with the DVD end now dwarfed in popularity by the streaming portion of the company.
One reason Netflix's business continues to boom is its ever-growing line-up of original TV series, such as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and this summer's huge hit Stranger Things. That's not even mentioning the multiple Marvel-based series now available on the streaming giant. On the other hand, as Netflix's original content selection has expanded, it's total library has compacted to a large degree, with recent reports suggesting that the service's title count has dropped a full 50 percent in the last four years.
Yet, despite this decrease in movie and TV show volume, Netflix's growth shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. The company has revealed its numbers for the third quarter of 2016, and just about every one of them is higher than had been expected. For one, Netflix added some 3.57 million subscribers in Q3, easily crushing the predicted number of 2.3 million. Part of this is due to Netflix launching in a host of new countries this year, but that type of overperformance is still something to crow about.
Additionally, Netflix says that its streaming service has added 12 million total new customers in 2016 so far, the same amount as added by this point in 2015. Overall revenues for the third quarter also passed the $2 billion mark for the first time ever. In short, Netflix is making serious money, and lots of it. This good news comes despite vocal outcries from some subscribers earlier this year over a long-since promised price increase of Netflix's standard streaming tier from $7.99 per month to $9.99.
To be fair, subscriber growth did take a slight hit in Q2, but the high Q3 gains likely make up for that small loss. As much as users might sometimes complain about Netflix not having the exact thing they want to stream at the exact time they decide they want to stream it, it seems that most still opt to remain on-board, and it's not hard to see why. At the end of the day, when it comes to amount of content vs. price, Netflix is still one of the best deals out there.
Screen Rant will keep you up to date on everything Netflix related as news warrants.
Source: THR