The Netflix logo is displayed above the company’s offices on January 24, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Netflix will report second-quarter earnings after the opening bell on Thursday, and Wall Street will be paying close attention to any details or progress the streaming company provides on its ad-supported business model.
The streaming giant launched its ad-supported service in late 2022 and has been gradually releasing details and metrics on the business’ performance.
Here’s what Wall Street expects from Netflix’s second-quarter results:
- Earnings per share: LSEG expects price to be 4.74
- Revenue: LSEG expects to reach $9.53 billion
- Total members: 274.4 million paying members, according to StreetAccount
Advertising has become an increasingly important business model for media companies to boost — or in some cases, achieve — streaming profits. Netflix’s stock has risen in recent quarters thanks to its efforts to attract subscribers to its cheaper, ad-supported tier, in addition to suppress about sharing passwords.
The company has also started adding live sports, such as the NFL games on christmas day over the next three years, a move that will likely attract more advertising dollars to the streaming service.
Netflix had about 270 million subscribers globally at the end of the first quarter, up 16% from the same period a year ago and beating expectations.
When Netflix pitched its ad-supported offerings to advertisers during its Upfront presentation in May, the company said its ad-supported offerings had accumulation 40 million monthly active users globally, nearly double the number the company announced a few months earlier.
Final a quarter Netflix warned investors that it will stop providing quarterly membership numbers or average revenue per user starting next year, noting that the company is “focused on revenue and operating margin as our key financial metrics — and engagement (i.e. time spent) as the best measure of customer satisfaction.”
The decision represents “Netflix’s transition from a high-growth, low-margin business to a slow-growth, high-margin business,” according to an analyst note from Wedbush last week. However, the note stressed that while Netflix has a big advantage over its competitors when it comes to the streaming business, that transition “is not yet complete.”
Netflix shares surge on password-sharing ban and cheaper ad-supported plan
“As Netflix allows investors and reporters to focus less on subscription additions, it will focus more on time spent with content, while its only real competitor of scale is YouTube,” said eMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes. “There will be more live event announcements as the company looks to improve time spent with ad-supported content as the industry cuts back on scripted content production.”
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