Netflix on Monday renewed the Keri Russell-led political drama for a second season, presumably to launch in 2024. The Diplomat‘s inaugural eight-episode season bowed just 10 days ago — on April 20 — and immediately shot to No. 1 on Netflix’s consumer-facing Top 10 list, with 57.48 million hours viewed in its first weekend.
The Night Agent debuted in the top position of Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the week of March 20-26. The Netflix political thriller was watched for 2.6 billion minutes in its first four days of availability, which according to Nielsen, makes it the 38th most watched streaming title in a measurement since 2020.
Netflix’s Bling Empire has fallen. Both the original series and its spinoff, Bling Empire: New York, have been canceled. Inspired by the big-screen success of Crazy Rich Asians, the first series focused on a group of Asian-American socialites in Los Angeles. Bling Empire‘s first season premiered in January 2021, followed by a second in May 2022.
Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters revealed what exactly went wrong with the live Love Is Blind Season 4 reunion special on Sunday — and how they plan to fix the problem with other live broadcasts moving forward. According to Peters, 6.5 million people watched the reunion special hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, which was set to stream live at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on Sunday night.
Exclusives
Netflix Delivers Mixed Results In First Quarter Since Reed Hastings’ Departure As Co-CEO
Netflix delivered a mixed set of results for the first quarter on Monday, edging Wall Street analysts’ estimates for earnings per share but falling short in other key categories. The consensus expectation of Wall Street analysts was for earnings per share of $2.86, revenue of $8.18 billion and a gain of 2.26 million net paid subscribers. Netflix reported EPS of $2.88, revenue of $8.16 billion and an increase of $1.75 million subscribers.
That’s according to Nielsen data for the first three months of the year, which shows the two outlets well ahead of other broadcasters and streaming outlets in terms of time spent watching first-run content. The results are similar to what they were in the fall of 2022, with Netflix and CBS also placing first and second in that study. (Both sets of data, incidentally, were commissioned by CBS.)
New analysis from Macquarie Research pegs Netflix’s imminent password sharing crackdown in the U.S. as a catalyst for growth on its ad-supported tier, with the potential for billions in annual incremental revenue in 2024.
The streaming company released Ben Affleck’s Air on 3,500 movie screens this week, and it plans to open 10 to 12 films theatrically every year.
The drama from Sony and showrunner Shawn Ryan debuted at No. 1 on the streamer last week.
The Night Agent snuck its way to the top of Netflix’s English-language TV charts for the week of March 20. The series, created by Shawn Ryan and based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk, debuted on March 23, raking in 168.7 million hours viewed in its first few days on the streamer. According to Netflix, that is the third-best premiere week of viewing across Season 1 TV for any Netflix Original. It also appeared in the Top 10 in 93 countries.
If you’re sick of looking at the same Netflix home page every time you’re browsing, there’s a solution. Turns out, the streaming giant has been hiding how it sorts its massive catalog of content. The secret menus can be accessed using a code that corresponds to a sub-genre, such as Deep Sea Horror, Irreverent TV Comedies or 90-Minute Movies.
Netflix continues to ramp up its video gaming ambitions, unveiling plans to release 40 more games this year. Since launching Netflix Games in November 2021, the streamer has released 55 games. Furthermore, Netflix said it’s developing 70 games with its partners, not including 16 games that are currently being developed by the company’s in-house game studios.
Netflix is spending big on a coming science-fiction movie from the filmmaking team behind Avengers: Endgame, underscoring the company’s willingness to invest heavily in projects it thinks can be turned into major franchises. The price tag for The Electric State — featuring A-list talent including Chris Pratt of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown—is likely to be in the high $200 million range, people familiar with the matter say.
After a slow start, Netflix’s advertising business has gained some momentum. The company’s advertising-supported service reached about 1 million monthly active users in the U.S. after its second month, according to internal data. The user base grew by more than 500% in the first month from its launch and another 50% in its second month. Netflix has also fulfilled its forecasted deliveries to advertisers, according to people familiar with the deals.
As Netflix inches closer to rolling out password-sharing guidelines in the United States, college students are bracing for changes to their streaming habits. The gradual password-sharing changes have created uncertainty for college students who might not have, or want to spend, disposable income for their own subscription.
Comedian Chris Rock will be the first artist to perform a live special on Netflix, which some analysts say could help create more appointment-based TV on streaming.
The SAG Awards, often an Oscar preview, threw some curve balls into the Oscars race in a ceremony streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page from Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Above: Stephanie Hsu, center, and members of the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once, accept the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture at the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. (Chris Pizzello/AP)
Poker Face, with its four-episode series premiere, landed at No. 3 on Nielsen’s latest U.S. ranking of streaming originals. For the week of Jan. 23, Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia yet again topped the chart, with 1.3 billion minutes viewed across 20 episodes. Netflix’s That ’90s Show repeated at No. 2 with 963 million minutes viewed across 10 episodes, followed by Peacock’s Poker Face (547 million minutes/four available episodes).
The premiere of That ’90s Show racked up strong viewing numbers in the United States, ranking second among all streaming titles. Ginny & Georgia remained No. 1, and The Last of Us moved into the top 10. That ’90s Show, which premiered Jan. 19 on Netflix, had 1.59 billion minutes of viewing time for the week of Jan. 16-22, according to Nielsen. That works out to 26.5 million hours — or almost 65% of the 41.08 million viewing hours worldwide that Netflix’s internal rankings measured for that week.
Unlike many of its rivals, Netflix has not pursued showing live games. Instead, it has invested in series on professional auto racing, tennis and now golf.
All the buzz about Netflix getting into the ad business prompted the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), which represents the local broadcast industry, to push back on behalf of traditional, linear TV. A recent report indicated that Netflix was telling advertisers that its Basic With Ads tier now has about 600,000 monthly active users. “Importantly, this metric refers to subscribers, not viewers and Netflix ad-supported users pale in comparison to local linear TV viewing audiences,” TVB CEO Steve Lanzano said. “The comparison is extremely meaningful for the advertising community and brands.”
Season 1 of the That ’70s Show spinoff premiered on Jan. 19, and immediately reached Netflix’s Top 10 English TV list in 35 countries, with more than 41 million hours viewed, according to the streamer.
The most streamed title across all streaming services in the first week of the year was Ginny & Georgia, according to Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings. The teen comedy-drama series was watched for 2.5 billion minutes from Jan. 2 to Jan. 8, during which its second season on Netflix was available for four days.
The rules are pretty mellow Stateside right now, but judging by Netflix’s radically different FAQs for its Latin American testing region, that will change real quick.
Ads could be 10% of revenue, or $3 billion, over time, CFO Spencer Neumann says. He estimates that about half of Hulu’s subscribers are on an ad-supported tier and that advertising is a multi-billion dollar business for Hulu. He noted Hulu operates only in the U.S., while Netflix is selling ads in multiple markets.
Netflix Beats 4Q Subscriber Growth Target
Netflix beat forecasts for subscriber gains for the fourth quarter and also edged revenue estimates, but pressure on earnings per share reflected broader challenges in the streaming business.
Netflix has expanded its measurement deal with Nielsen. Under the terms of the deal, Netflix will now subscribe to Nielsen’s national TV content measurement and streaming TV data services.
After debuting in the No. 4 position last week, Harry & Meghan has risen to second place on Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings with the debut of its second set of three episodes. The series was watched for 1.7 billion minutes during the Dec. 12-18 viewing window, during which its final episodes were available for four days. This marks an increase of 34% in viewership from the Dec. 5-11 viewing window, which included the first four days of availability of the first three episodes.
