Streaming giant Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) reported second-quarter financial results after the market close Thursday.
Here are the key highlights.
What Happened: Netflix reported second-quarter revenue of $9.56 billion, up 16.8% year-over-year. The revenue total beat a Street consensus estimate of $9.53 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
The company reported second-quarter earnings per share of $4.88, beating a Street consensus estimate of $4.75.
Netflix ended the second quarter with 277.65 million paid members, adding 8.05 million paid members in the quarter. Paid members grew 16.5% year-over-year, but came in shy of the 9.33 million paid members added in the first quarter.
The company highlighted "Bridgerton," "Baby Reindeer," "Queen of Tears," "The Great Indian Kapil Show," "Hit Man" and "The Roast of Tom Brady" as hit shows, movies and live premieres in the second quarter.
"The Roast of Tom Brady" had the largest live audience in Netflix history, the company said.
Netflix said its ad-supported membership was up 34% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter.
"We're building an in-house ad tech platform that we'll test in Canada in 2024 and launch more broadly in 2025," the company said.
What's Next: Netflix is guiding for third-quarter revenue to be $9.73 billion, up 13.9% year-over-year. Third-quarter guidance calls for earnings per share of $5.10.
The company said it expects third-quarter net paid subscriber adds to be lower than the previous year, which was the first to see the full quarter results of paid sharing efforts.
Netflix said it's on track for "critical ad subscriber scale for advertisers" to come in 2025.
"Our ad revenue is growing nicely and is becoming a more meaningful contributor to our business. But building a business from scratch takes time."
The company said it is confident the ad-supported plan will be a "key component" for long-term revenue and profit growth.
Netflix did not announce a premiere date for its highly anticipated second season of "Squid Game," but in included the popular franchise in a gaming update.
"We will premiere a multiplayer game based on the Squid Game universe later this year timed to the launch of season two of the biggest TV series ever."
NFLX Price Action: Netflix shares are down 3% to $626.52 in after-hours trading Thursday versus a 52-week trading range of $344.73 to $697.49.