Netflix’s big 4Q lifts video service above 200M subscribers
Associated PressSAN RAMON, Calif. — Netflix’s video streaming service has surpassed 200 million subscribers for the first time as its expanding line-up of TV series and movies continues to captivate people stuck at home during the ongoing battle against the pandemic. The service added another 8.5 million subscribers during the October-December period, capping Netflix’s biggest year since its inception as a DVD-by-mail service in 1997. The fourth-quarter gains easily topped the projections of the roughly 6 million additional subscribers projected by Netflix’s own management and Wall Street analysts, even as the company began rolling out price increases of 8% to 13% in the U.S. Netflix’s stock surged by more than 12% extended trading after the latest subscriber numbers came out. “It gets us fired up about increasing our membership and increasing our content production.” To retain and attract subscribers, Netflix already had been spending so much money on original programming that the company usually ends up shoveling out more cash than its video services brings in from its subscribers, although it has remained profitable under the accounting standards allowed in the entertainment industry.