Over the last three months, Netflix has become more involved in the sports space with several documentaries and live presentations. The media conglomerate presented a doubleheader of NFL games on Christmas Day that averaged more than 30 million global viewers, along with a bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson that was the most-streamed sporting event of all time. On top of that, the streaming provider acquired U.S. media rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in 2027 and 2031 and tied for its largest share in the Nielsen Media Research Gauge report for the month of December.
Netflix attained $10.25 billion in quarterly revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter, according to its latest earnings report, indicative of a 16% year-over-year rise. Operating income also proliferated to $2.27 billion, representing a 22.2% year-over-year increase overall. The company added 18.91 million global streaming paid memberships, its largest quarterly increase of the year and year-over-year growth of 15.9%. The company acknowledged the appeal of its live programming slate and divulged that it now has paid memberships surpassing 300 million, while also outlining its approach towards the sports media business.
“We’re not focusing on acquiring rights to large regular season sports packages; rather, our live strategy is all about delivering can’t miss, special-event programming,” Netflix said in its shareholder letter. “This includes not only sports but also exciting comedy specials like Chris Rock: Selective Outrage and The Roast of Tom Brady. Our aim is to deliver big, memorable moments to our members. Although our live programming will likely be a small percentage of our total view hours and content expense, we think the eventized nature will result in outsized value to both our members and our business.”
Net income for the fiscal quarter was $1.87 billion, equating to $4.27 per share, representing a jump from the $938 million it had attained at this time last year. The company is in the midst of its first quarter of the new year with weekly presentations of WWE Raw on Monday nights, marking the first year of a 10-year contract with TKO Group Holdings reportedly worth a total of $5 billion. Netflix will also present the NFL again on Christmas Day in December as part of a three-season deal it signed with the league last May.
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