Netflix saw a 50 percent increase in its subscribers in its third quarter turnaround, thanks to its original shows drawing in new viewers worldwide and keeping U.S. customers hooked despite the price hike. To keep the numbers up, the company is reportedly going to invest $6 billion on original shows.
The company's third quarter performance soared by 20 percent from a previously disappointing second quarter subscription growth. Netflix trade shares rose to $119.82 after expanding heavily outside its local market and from a recent trade share of only $99.80.
After expanding to international markets and despite a disappointing second quarter trade performance, Netflix added around 3.2 million new subscribers globally this third quarter, which is a significant increase from its average of 2.01 million. The rise could be credited to the worldwide release of its original shows like Stranger Things, Narcos and Marvel's Daredevil, among others.
And now, a petition is making rounds for Netflix to produce a Star Wars: The Old Republic original series, garnering about 75,000 signatories at the time of writing.
"Why Netflix was chosen was because of the wealth of great content they have produced over the years, such as Narcos, House of Cards and especially everything that Marvel has done and is still currently working on," the petition stated.
Netflix acquired 370,000 additional subscribers in the U.S. market compared to 309,000 subscribers in the last quarter.
It managed to expand to 130 more markets internationally excluding China and mentioned on Monday, Oct. 17 that it will be dropping plans for a Chinese launch in the following months, opting to license its own shows instead for average revenue.
Netflix is still hoping to launch its services in the Chinese market eventually.
Spending $6 Billion On New Shows
Netflix is not doing well in the United States in terms of subscription growth as it faces tough competition against ESPN, Amazon, Hulu, NBC, CBS and more.
According to data from Boston Consulting Group and SNL Kagan, Netflix is currently in second place as the biggest spender on media content category among the , with the company's announcement of its plans to invest $6 billion on content. That still is not enough to beat ESPN's projected $7.3 billion budget for 2016. NBC comes in third place, having spent $4.3 billion on content, followed closely by CBS with its $4 billion content expenditure. Amazon came in fifth place with an estimated $3.2 billion spent on content this year.
Despite this, Netflix has other popular shows under its belt including House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and Stranger Things, which are expected to draw in an additional 1.45 million U.S. subscribers in the current quarter. In the international market, Netflix is expecting its subscription to grow with an addition of 3.75 million subscribers.
Its shares have increased over the last few years, thanks to the company's rapid growth, redefining status quo for television shows, and introducing "binge-watching" to its subscribers, where they can watch a number of episodes of a specific show in succession for hours.
Third-quarter profits rose to $2.29 billion, a 31.7 percent increase.
For now, Netflix is planning on pouring more money into establishing a roster of original movies and TV shows. Content spending is expected to be around $6 billion by the end of this year or early next year.
