The world’s biggest streaming service, Netflix, is set to report its fourth quarter 2023 earnings today (Jan 23) after market close.

The earnings call will provide a glimpse into how the $212 billion company finished off last year amidst a turbulent period for the streaming industry which has seen writers’ strikes, more competition, and changing consumer preferences.

What time is the Netflix earnings call?

Netflix executives will host the video earnings interview at 4:45 pm Eastern Time / 1:45 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday. Investors and the public can access the live video webcast for free on the company’s investor relations website.

What to expect from Netflix Q4 Earnings?

Netflix is expected to announce it added about 8.9 million global paid subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2023. If it achieves this forecast, it means the company will have added 24 million to its subscriber base last year and would take total global subscriptions to around 271 million.

The boost is anticipated to come from the launch of Netflix’s ad-supported plan in November, which offers a cheaper tier at $6.99 per month to attract more budget-conscious viewers at a time when household budgets are squeezed by rising costs. Earlier this month Yahoo Finance reported that over 23 million monthly active accounts have already signed up to the ad service.

If the analyst projections hold, Netflix will show it has rebounded solidly from a tough 2022 in which the number of subscribers fell in the first half of that year.

Beyond subs, Wall Street will watch metrics like revenue very closely (expected to hit $8.71 billion this quarter) and earnings per share ($2.20 forecast) to gauge financial impact. Trends around average revenue per user (ARPU) will also be scrutinized, given Netflix’s recent standard pricing increase in the US and Canada.

More broadly, Netflix’s results will offer clues into how major media companies are adjusting to the increasingly competitive streaming market. With new job cuts enacted at organizations like Amazon and Disney, the blank-check era around content spending seems to be ending. The focus now is trying to wring profits from streaming itself rather than chasing subscriber growth indefinitely.

Already Netflix has indicated its desire to diversify its content offering in 2024. The Silicon Valley firm will enter into live sports streaming for a tennis event, called “The Netflix Slam,” on March 3, 2024, but in even bigger news, on Tuesday (Jan 23) the company announced a $5bn deal to show WWE Raw on its service from January 2025.

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