Netflix Won’t Give Guidance For Paid Subscribers After This Quarter As Revenue Becomes “Primary Top Line Metric”

deadline.com:

Netflix said today that its closely watched paid membership number is becoming “just one component” of total revenue growth, so as of the fourth quarter it will stop offering forward-looking subscriber forecasts.

Shares of Netflix and other streamers are highly sensitive to shifts in subscriber numbers, which has defined success for years.

But with content costs surging, the Street and the industry are both trying to shift that and hone in on sales and profits. Netflix’ new tier with advertising debuting next month will make it a multi-revenue story. “We are increasingly focused on revenue as our primary top line metric.

This will become particularly important heading into 2023 as we develop new revenue streams like advertising and paid sharing, where membership is just one component of our revenue growth,” Netflix said. “So, starting with our Q4’22 letter in January of 2023, we’ll continue to provide guidance for revenue, operating income, operating margin, net income, EPS and fully diluted shares outstanding for the following quarter, but not paid membership.” The company will continue to report global and regional membership each quarter as part of its earnings release.