Netflix U.S. growth sputters in face of rivals

Netflix on Tuesday continued to conquer the world - but it fell slightly short in its own backyard. The streaming giant added over 8.7 million subscribers worldwide in the fourth quarter - beating Wall Street's expectations - but membership growth lagged in the U.S. and Canada. Oscar-contender "The Irishman" and award-winning series "The Crown" helped grab a global audience, in addition to an enhanced slate of non-English programming. But in the U.S., Netflix hiked its subscription price, then witnessed the launch of streaming rivals Apple TV+ and Disney+ - with HBO Max and NBC's Peacock coming this spring. Adding insult to injury, the latter two are about to swipe a pair of Netflix's most popular shows, with "Friends" soon heading to HBO Max and "The Office" streaming on Peacock next year. As the competition picks off its hits, Netflix is countering by pouring money into new content. Last year's cash budget was $15 billion. That could not only buy Netflix more viewers in 2020, but could also result in lots of gold statuettes, as Netflix's 24 Oscar nominations are more than any other studio's. Read More...

Netflix on Tuesday continued to conquer the world – but it fell slightly short in its own backyard.

The streaming giant added over 8.7 million subscribers worldwide in the fourth quarter – beating Wall Street’s expectations – but membership growth lagged in the U.S. and Canada.

Oscar-contender “The Irishman” and award-winning series “The Crown” helped grab a global audience, in addition to an enhanced slate of non-English programming.

But in the U.S., Netflix hiked its subscription price, then witnessed the launch of streaming rivals Apple TV+ and Disney+ – with HBO Max and NBC’s Peacock coming this spring.

Adding insult to injury, the latter two are about to swipe a pair of Netflix’s most popular shows, with “Friends” soon heading to HBO Max and “The Office” streaming on Peacock next year.

As the competition picks off its hits, Netflix is countering by pouring money into new content.

Last year’s cash budget was $15 billion.

That could not only buy Netflix more viewers in 2020, but could also result in lots of gold statuettes, as Netflix’s 24 Oscar nominations are more than any other studio’s.