Yes, ditching Acosta — who has had a well-publicized contentious relationship with President Donald Trump, who reentered the White House this week — was a notable move, one that many will perceive as an olive branch to the new administration.

Still, the changes are more cosmetic than colossal: Jake Tapper, perhaps the network’s most respected anchor, saw his start time moved back an hour to 5 p.m. ET; Wolf Blitzer, who has been with the network since 1990, will now do his two-hour show in the morning instead of the evening; and both Kaitlan Collins and Anderson Cooper’s shows will remain in their same nightly time slot.

It is hard to expect a major ratings boost when the channel’s main faces remain the same.

Before the formal announcement Thursday, several of the changes had been leaked to media outlets. But even if some of the moves appear warranted, they don’t address the other challenges with which the network is grappling. Those hurdles include, but aren’t limited to, dwindling ratings, declining revenue driven by “cord cutting” that has assailed the entire cable business, and a collapse in public trust of mainstream journalism.

CNN’s primetime viewership — just like MSNBC’s — cratered in the weeks following the 2024 presidential election. The network’s primetime ratings dropped 35% to 470,000 viewers by mid-November. By contrast, Fox News — which enjoys a much cozier relationship with Trump — saw its primetime audience grow 34%, to 3.157 million viewers following his electoral victory.

While Fox’s rivals have regained some audience after losing viewers to what many saw as election fatigue, a full ratings recovery has still not occurred for CNN, with its primetime lineup averaging 501,000 viewers during the first week of January.

A person with knowledge of CNN’s changes said it is too simplistic to point to the network’s ratings being down. The CNN source pointed out there were only 161 million cable subscribers in the U.S. on Inauguration Day 2025, compared to 251 million in 2017 — a byproduct of the aforementioned cord cutting — so a ratings decline is expected.

Instead, the changes, the person said, signify a fundamental shift for CNN, which intends to prioritize its digital and streaming business moving forward. CNN announced a $70 million investment into its digital business on Thursday, and said it would add at least 100 new roles this year for a new streaming service. (Those announcements came at the same time CNN laid off another 200 staffers.)

Whether revenue growth comes from CNN’s cable or digital business, one side needs to pick up the slack because the network is not making as much money as it used to.

In a defamation lawsuit that CNN lost last week to a U.S. Navy veteran, a forensic economist for the plaintiff found the company’s revenue had dropped 18.1% from 2021 to 2023, sliding from $2.2 billion to $1.8 billion. CNN’s net worth was nearly sliced in half during that same period, from $4.4 billion in 2021 to $2.3 billion in 2023, according to the forensic economist.

A CNN spokesperson said those figures were inaccurate.

“The numbers represent the Plaintiff’s interpretation of a subset of data as presented in litigation, and they do not represent financial data for the whole of CNN’s business,” the spokesperson told TheWrap.

Perhaps more importantly, the defamation lawsuit came at a time when the American public’s trust in mainstream outlets like CNN has eroded.

CNN was ordered to pay the veteran $5 million, after a segment on Tapper’s show in 2021 said he “exploited” desperate Afghans fleeing the country on the “black market.” The network then settled with the veteran, Zachary Young, before a Florida jury could decide on punitive damages — a move that was reminiscent of CNN settling its defamation lawsuit with Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann back in 2020.

Headlines like that will not help CNN win back viewers or readers in an already-difficult climate for news outlets. An October Gallup poll from earlier this month found only 31% of Americans expressed a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media to accurately report the news — a new all-time low. Americans are now turning to alternative sources like YouTube to get their news and opinions, while gravitating toward more partisan political sites that share their ideology.

In March, CNN’s Thompson laid out a five-point plan to restructure the network for the future in a difficult news environment. To the extent that Thompson is revamping the TV component of his business, leaving its core anchors in place will likely do little to reverse those trends.

The post CNN’s Lineup Changes: The Flawed Thinking Behind Mark Thompson’s Latest Move | Analysis appeared first on TheWrap.

The Season 2 debut of “Squid Game” boosted the Netflix series to reach the biggest weekly streaming audience any show has seen in 2024, according to Nielsen’s streaming charts.

With the second installment debuting Dec. 26 on Netflix, “Squid Game” drew 4.92 billion minutes over its two seasons in the interval between Dec. 23 to Dec. 29. Viewership for “Squid Game” was more than double that of Netflix’s “Virgin River,” which scored a whopping 2.25 billion viewing minutes as the second most-watched streaming program of the week.

Dwayne Johnson-led “Red One” also scored an impressive streaming viewership as the holiday movie scored 1.81 billion viewing minutes on Prime Video during the week, clocking in as the third most-watched program of the week. Next up was holiday thriller “Carry-On,” which scored 1.54 billion viewing minutes on Netflix, and “The Six Triple Eight,” which drew a streaming viewership of 1.33 billion minutes on Netflix.

Beloved kids show “Bluey” took the sixth spot on the list with 1.17 billion viewing minutes, outpacing “Landman,” which scored 1.08 billion viewing minutes on Paramount+, as well as “The Equalizer,” which drew 1.05 cumulative billion minutes across Paramount+ and Netflix.

The holidays also boosted Christmas classics “Home Alone” and “Elf” into the ninth and tenth spots on the overall most-watched list with 917 and 848 million viewing minutes, respectively.

On the top 10 most-watched streaming originals list, Netflix series “Black Doves,” “No Good Deed” and “La Palma” all made an appearance, with “Black Doves” clocking in fourth place behind “Squid Game,” “Virgin River” and “Landman” with 448 million streaming minutes. “No Good Dead” and “La Palma” scored 446 and 435 million minutes, respectively, during the interval.

Prime Video’s “Beast Games” also notched its way into the top 10 streaming originals in the No. 7 spot with 406 million minutes, outpacing stand-up comedy special “Your Friend, Nate Bergatze,” which took eighth place with 394 million minutes on Netflix.

The post ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Reaches Biggest Weekly Streaming Audience of 2024 With 4.9 Billion Viewing Minutes appeared first on TheWrap.

This week, the new hit series was displaced by Netflix’s “Back in Action” starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, according to the Samba TV Weekly Wrap for January 13-19. Cameron Diaz’s comeback after nearly a decade away from the screen was an instant hit for the streamer with the spy thriller earning 3.2M US households tuning in over its debut weekend. 

Down from its premiere week where it first appeared in second place on the chart, Netflix’s Western epic miniseries “American Primeval” comes in third this week. Fourth was Netflix’s French action film “Ad Vitam,” with a monumental rise from tenth as word of mouth picked up. In fifth was another Netflix smash, “Squid Game S2.” Even though all of the episodes were released the day after Christmas, the second season of “Squid Game” is celebrating its fourth week in the top 10. 

Amazon Prime Video had two shows in the top 10 streaming list: “Beast Games” in the sixth spot (its third straight week in the charts) and Dick Wolf’s new police drama “On Call” coming in tenth (falling from seventh last week). Max’s show “The Pitt,” an emergency room drama starring Noah Wylie, came in seventh. Lastly, the second installment of dystopian series “Silo” on Apple TV+ got the ninth spot.

Over on the linear charts this week, game shows were big winners, with a revamped “Hollywood Squares” on CBS winning the top spot. NBC got the second spot with “Saturday Night Live,” driven by Dave Chappelle’s 17-minute monologue that garnered a lot of buzz.

ABC was the big winner of the week with episodes of “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy,” along with the detective show “Will Trent,” snagging six of the top 10 spots. Episodes of “Wheel” landed in third, fourth, fifth, and tenth, “Jeopardy” took eighth, and “Will Trent” came in sixth. 

NBC’s midseason part-two premiere of “Law & Order” was the seventh most-watched linear show. And CBS’s “Price is Right” got the ninth spot this week. 

The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households, balanced to the U.S. Census.

The post Netflix’s ‘Back in Action’ Dethrones ‘Landman’ on Streaming Top 10 | Chart appeared first on TheWrap.

The mood was already nostalgic at the event, with shared memories of the chaotic shoot of the original film, 2004’s “DIG!” But after the devastating fires, which also took the home of her brother, the film’s editor David Timoner, the gathering of the film and music community also became a wake of sorts.

“I love that this loving audience was here,” she said of the sold-out event, where she and David were met with hugs, condolences and offers to help catalog everything she lost in the fire. Vidiots gifted Ondi and David, as well as their mother Elissa, with branded merchandise from the theater and video store to help replace their lost wardrobe.

“It’s just really sad to be home and not go home. I knew this would suck so hard to be back,” she told TheWrap in the lobby after the screening, as friends and fans politely interrupted to offer their love and support.

The following Monday, Timoner missed the intro to her new documentary “All God’s Children” at the Museum of Tolerance because she and her wife Morgan were combing through the rubble of their house. Her film archives and all her other possessions were a total loss, but she found remnants of her two Sundance awards, which were still recognizable but damaged beyond repair.

The crowd at the museum was moved by the emotional, sometimes difficult film about a Brooklyn rabbi — Timoner’s sister Rachel — and a Bed-Stuy Baptist pastor working together to fight antisemitism and racism. At least a dozen attendees, from a young woman who had come in from Las Vegas to an older gentleman with a white beard, thanked her for the film and marveled that she could keep going despite her loss.

The film, which still needs a distributor, will be shown at a private screening at Sundance, as will Timoner’s other new documentary, “The Inn Between,” about a hospice in Utah for the homeless. Timoner recalled the moment, during an ABC News interview in New York on Jan. 15, where she realized that she, too, was now homeless.

“It can happen in an instant,” Timoner told TheWrap. “I’m not trying to say that David and I are in the position of the people that I filmed [for ‘The Inn Between’]. I have resources,” she said, praising friends and the film community who have been hosting her, her wife and their pets since the fires that destroyed more than 7,000 homes in the area.

Timoner was touched by the outpouring of support, including from Sundance Director Eugene Hernandez, who, ahead of her return to the fest, was sizing festival gear to replace her lost winter clothes.

“I told him quite honestly that for me it feels like returning to my Sundance home,” Timoner said Wednesday as she prepared to head to Park City.

OK, yeah, I lost my house. It doesn’t mean that I’m not totally bereft, but the work helped me.” – Ondi Timoner

Former Utah Congressman Ben McAdams will host a Sundance screening of “The Inn Between” on Sunday, with members from the hospice in Salt Lake City joining her for a Q&A. The following day, “All God’s Children” EP Geralyn Dreyfous is hosting a Q&A with executive producers Aaron, Julia and Marcus Gershenberg.

Timoner has a 20-year history with the festival, having premiered “DIG!” in 2004 and “We Live in Public” in 2009. Both films won the fest’s U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize, making her the only director to win the award twice. Fortunately, both films are part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in New York.

When the fires erupted, Timoner was in Budapest and had planned to interview a Holocaust survivor named Joseph (she didn’t want to disclose his last name) when a neighbor texted that her house had burned down.

“I was like, I’m not going to let Joseph down. I’m going to show up for Joseph,” she said of deciding in the moment not to give in to despair.

“I sat down with him and he warmed my heart,” she said of the interview. “He survived and had a family. It was so beautiful to be with him. And then I was like, ‘F–k it. My house burned down, but his father was murdered. He was supposed to die 17 times over, and he’s sitting there. He’s 86 there and he’s having a beer.'”

She added, “So, OK, yeah, I lost my house. It doesn’t mean that I’m not totally bereft, but the work helped me.”

While Timoner isn’t sure where she and her wife will be staying next (possibly at a friend’s vacant apartment in New York), actress Tara Subkoff has started a GoFundMe for Timoner and her family. Both Timoner and her brother lived within a mile of their mother’s house in Altadena, which survived the fires.

Oscilloscope, which is distributing “Dig! XX,” is also donating a portion of the sales of T-shirts for the film to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

The post Filmmaker Ondi Timoner Doesn’t Have Time to Dwell on Losing Her House in the Eaton Fire — She’s Got 3 Movies to Promote appeared first on TheWrap.

Monday’s college national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame brought in an impressive audience.

The matchup, which saw the Buckeyes take victory over the Fighting Irish, scored 22.1 million viewers on Monday night, according to Nielsen viewing figures. The game peaked with 26.1 million viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET.

The game currently ranks as the most-watched non-NFL sporting event over the past year, and drew the biggest audience of the inaugural 12-team college football playoffs.

The Ohio State-Notre Dame game followed up on the 2025 inauguration of Donald Trump, which brought in an average total viewership of 24.59 million from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET across 15 networks, including in the viewership include ABC, CBS, NBC, Merit Street Media, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.

Monday night’s game saw a slightly bigger audience Rose Bowl game between Oregon and Ohio State, which scored 21.1 million viewers. By comparison the delayed Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia drew a viewership of 15.8 million.

On Saturday, the game between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs became ESPN’s most-watched NFL game ever with an average viewership of 32.7 million. The matchup scored the biggest Saturday afternoon kickoff audience in ten seasons since 2016, including all 4:30 p.m. ET kickoffs across all networks.

The Ohio State-Notre Dame saw Ohio State win their 9th national title, defeating Notre Dame 34-23. The game took place in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

The post Ohio State-Notre Dame College National Championship Game Scores 22.1 Million Viewers appeared first on TheWrap.

ScreenShare, a data partnership between Screen Engine/ASI and TheWrap, tracks the Top 10 most-mentioned entertainment options every week and whether each has gained or lost momentum compared to the prior week. The chart lives on the Data & Analysis page of the WrapPRO Members Hub.

“Wicked” continues to be popular, coming in at No. 1 for the ninth week in a row. “Super Bowl LIX” holds its position at No. 2 while “NFL Football” moves up to No. 3 as football fans get one step closer to learning who will play in this year’s Super Bowl. Netflix’s “Squid Game” dips one spot to No. 4. Anthony Mackie will make his theatrical debut as Captain America in Disney’s “Captain America: Brave New World” on Feb. 14, which joins the list at No. 5.

“Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” now available to rent and buy on digital platforms, lands at No. 6. Paramount+’s “Landman,” starring Billy Bob Thornton, holds at No. 7 while “Mufasa: The Lion King” drops two spots to No. 8. Netflix’s “Stranger Things” reappears on the list at No. 9 as fans eagerly await the official release date for the fifth and final season. Disney’s “Moana 2,” grossing over one billion globally, dips one spot to round out the Top 10.

Weekly Top 10

The post ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Returns to Top 10 Titles Audiences Are Most Excited About appeared first on TheWrap.

The annual gathering in Park City, which kicks off Thursday, arrives when both the physical and financial landscapes have dramatically shifted, with some filmmakers, actors and executives literally displaced from their homes while the broader market continues its drift away from the streaming-fueled bidding wars of recent years.

Adding to the challenges, the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires is palpable among industry figures headed to the festival. “I think going into Sundance, that provides people there with a bit of perspective,” Julien Levesque, an agent in Gersh’s film finance group, told TheWrap. “People are going to be at Sundance with a little bit of a renewed sense of purpose, and just that community feeling that we’ve been feeling in Los Angeles I think definitely will continue.”

Picturestart’s Erik Feig, who has been displaced from his Palisades home due to the fires, sees the festival as an opportunity for renewal. “What’s so great about Sundance, what I always love about it, is it’s the community of creativity,” Feig said. “It’s by far my favorite festival, because it’s such a festival of discoveries, more than Venice or Toronto. There are so many movies that you don’t really know anything about, and so many filmmakers who are brand new.”

The market dynamics at this year’s festival reflect an industry in transition. Every industry insider who spoke to TheWrap agreed that the days of all-night bidding wars are pretty much over, making way for a more measured sale process that can extend beyond the festival’s end date. Those seeking distribution are cautiously optimistic that buyers will be spreading around the love — and their bets — instead of plopping down big money for one or two films and leaving.

“I think that we’re in a positive direction in terms of the market,” Levesque said. “For several years we had these big booms in acquisitions, which was obviously very nice, but we’re returning, and we’re evolving as an industry, towards a more strategic and thoughtful acquisition market, and I’m positive Sundance will be a great place to have a lot of these great films that we can showcase and to get picked up.”

Topic Studios’ EVP of Film and Documentary Ryan Heller, who had great success last year with “A Real Pain,” the Kieran Culkin-starring drama that was snatched up by Searchlight for $10 million and is now considered a contender in awards season, echoed Levesque’s sentiment that the sales process is now more diversified.

“There are more buyers playing more distinct games from one another,” he said, noting that there are pure streaming buyers, pure theatrical buyers and some who are a hybrid of both, each with their own windowing strategy. “What that means for us as sellers is that you can have the same movie and five buyers with varied ideas about release timing, how to reach an audience [and] who the audience is.”

Heller, who has two documentaries in the festival this year in “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” and “FOLKTALES,” described the relatively new experience as both exciting and more complicated, since it depends on what the sellers feel is the best path for the movie.

The biggest sales at last year’s festival were largely marked by either big stars or genre fare, but none of them made a huge splash at the box office: There was “A Real Pain” ($12 million gross), Magnolia snatched the June Squibb actioner “Thelma” for an undisclosed sum ($12.6 million gross) and Amazon MGM Studios picked up the Aubrey Plaza-starring coming-of-age film “My Old Ass” for $15 million ($5.7 million gross before streaming on Prime Video). Netflix also plopped down $17 million for the body-swap horror movie “It’s What’s Inside” and an undisclosed amount for the Will Ferrell documentary “Will & Harper.”

This year’s lineup is more muted, with fewer films featuring big stars and only a couple from established filmmakers. That said, two of the buzziest acquisition titles are the Jennifer Lopez-fronted “Kiss of the Spider Woman” from director Bill Condon and the Benedict Cumberbatch grief drama “The Thing With Feathers.”

What impact that dynamic will have on the market is unclear, but Republic Pictures president and chief content licensing officer Dan Cohen, who is bringing the Dylan O’Brien film “Twinless” to the festival, acknowledged this year’s lineup feels “pretty indie.”

Levesque added: “I feel that there’s not going to be huge bidding wars, but I do feel that there will be deals made and there will be opportunities for these films to be seen.” That of course includes streamers — Apple picked up “CODA” for $25 million in 2021 and won the Oscar for Best Picture, Hulu and Neon paid $17.5 million for the Andy Samberg comedy “Palm Springs” in 2020 and Netflix has been a constant presence at the festival over the last several years.

“Streamers are very well educated. They know their market, they know their audience, they know the consumer,” Feig said. “They know what works on their platform. They know what doesn’t.”

But the overall state of independent film remains complex. “I think why buyers go to Sundance is to be surprised,” Heller said, tempering expectations about big sales. “It’s less about the tempo of the market or how quickly things sell, and it’s really about the long game on every title.”

As Feig puts it, “In independent film, as in so many other areas about media and the economy at large, it’s feast or famine. You either really work or you really don’t work.”

That extends to the documentary community, which has been struggling in recent years. Amplify Pictures founder Joe Lewis and head of documentary Lauren Haber have “Pamela, A Love Story” director Ryan White’s new film “Come See Me in the Good Light,” about poet and LGBTQ activist Andrea Gibson, at this year’s festival. But as veterans of the documentary space, they acknowledged a changed environment, one in which they strive to combine passion with commercial prospects.

“We’re honest about the state of the industry,” Lewis said, noting that the current documentary market favors films about sports, music, true crime or celebrity. “How do we make something that’s elevated and smart and has great filmmaking but is also commercial?” The “Fleabag” and “Transparent” producer said they focus on serious subjects “but done in a fun way,” while noting they don’t run after every trend. “If we wanted to chase what was commercial, we’d do a lot more true crime.”

Haber, who worked on the acclaimed documentary “Sugarcane” that premiered at Sundance last year and is firmly in the Oscar race, pointed out that many documentaries shortlisted for this year’s Oscars struggled to find U.S. distribution. “I do feel like there’s a disconnect there that I hope is so obvious right now, that it’s being recognized, and that it will start to move in a different direction,” she said of critically acclaimed docs failing to find a distributor.

Of course, coming out of the dual strikes and overall contraction in Hollywood, narrative indie film is not immune to constraints either.

“I think the industry as a whole is evolving, and indie film as a whole is evolving to exist in this new marketplace. So I feel good about the state of indie film,” Levesque said. “I think that there’s inherently going to be a latent period between what the market is selling and what the producers and financiers are making.”

He added: “And we’ve had this big slowdown in acquisition. We had a big slowdown in production. A lot of producers and financiers have had to kind of structure how they build their budget in a much more thoughtful way that allows for a film to be successful.”

The post Sundance Preview: LA Fires Cast Shadow Over Park City as Market Seeks New Balance appeared first on TheWrap.

Trump’s second swearing-in brought in an average total viewership of 24.59 million viewers across 15 networks from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET, according to early viewing figures from Nielsen. Networks which aired the inauguration and are included in the viewership include ABC, CBS, NBC, Merit Street Media, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.

Viewership for the 2025 inauguration was down 27% from Biden’s 2021 inauguration, which scored an audience of 33.76 million viewers across 17 channels. The 2025 inauguration reverses the viewership growth the event had seen in 2021, which saw a 10.18% increase from the 30.64 million viewers brought in by the 2017 inauguration.

The 2025 inauguration also saw a 19.75% viewership downtick from Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, which scored 30.64 million viewers across 12 networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Univision, Telemundo, CNBC, Fox Business Network, Galavision and HLN.

The audience for the 2025 inauguration included 1.43 million viewers ages 18-34, 4.67 million viewers ages 35-54 and 17.4 million viewers ages 55+. For comparison, the 2021 inauguration captured 2.85 million viewers ages 18-34, 8.21 million viewers ages 35-54 and 21 million viewers ages 55+.

As expected, Fox News’ coverage of the inauguration dominated amongst its counterparts, with Fox News averaging 10.3 million viewers from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET on Monday, while CNN averaged 1.7 million viewers and MSNBC reached 848,000 viewers during the same time period. Likewise, ABC averaged 4.7 million viewers during the same time period while CBS scored 4.1 million viewers and NBC reached 4.4 million viewers.

Despite a viewership decline on linear channels, inauguration-related content on YouTube drew in over 30 million people on Monday, according to the platform’s data. Of the livestreams with the highest number of peak concurrent U.S. viewers on Monday, Fox News accounted for three of the top five.

During the inauguration, which was attended by politicians and billionaires alike, Trump outlined a slew of executive orders he intended to sign on his first day of the presidency, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border with Mexico, ending the Green New Deal to “drill, baby, drill” and eradicate “government censorship.”

The post Trump 2025 Inauguration Scores Nearly 25 Million Viewers, Down 27% From 2021 appeared first on TheWrap.

Here are the top-line results:

Net income: $1.87 billion, compared to $938 million a year ago.

Earnings per share: $4.27 per share, up 102% year over year, compared to $4.19 per share expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue: $10.25 billion, up 16% year over year, compared to $10.12 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Subscribers: Netflix added 18.9 million subscribers in the quarter, up 15.9% to 301.63 million globally. For the full year, Netflix added a record 41 million subscribers.

Subscriber growth for the quarter was driven by broad strength across its content slate, improved product/market fit across all regions and typical seasonality, the company said in its quarterly shareholder letter. Netflix touted programming such as “Squid Game” Season 2, the action film “Carry-On” and its live events including the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight and its pair of NFL Christmas Day games.

With the impacts of COVID-19 and 2023’s Hollywood strikes behind it, Netflix anticipates approximately $18 billion in cash content spend in 2025 — up from $17 billion — as the streaming business remains competitive across traditional entertainment and big tech.

“We’re fortunate that we don’t have distractions like managing declining linear networks and, with our focus and continued investment, we have good and improving product/market fit around the world,” the streamer stated. “We have to continue to improve all aspects of Netflix — more series and films our members love, a great product experience, increased sophistication in our plans and pricing strategy (including more advertising capabilities) — and grow into new areas like live programming and games. If we do that well, we believe we’ll have an increasingly valuable company — for consumers, creators and shareholders.”

The last hurrah for quarterly subscriber disclosures

As it shifts its focus to revenue, operating margins and engagement, Netflix will stop reporting its quarterly subscriber count and average revenue-per-paid member figures beginning in the first quarter of 2025. It will continue to provide a breakout of total revenue by region, as well as the impact of foreign exchange changes, and announce major subscriber milestones as it crosses them.

Its next bi-annual engagement updates will be released in February and with its earnings results for the second quarter of 2025 in July.

Netflix added 4.82 million paid subscribers in the U.S. and Canada during the quarter for a total of 89.6 million; 5 million in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for a total of 101.13 million; 4.15 million in Latin America for a total of 53.33 million; and 4.94 million in the Asia-Pacific region for a total of 57.54 million.

Average revenue per paid member grew 4% in the U.S. and Canada to $17.26, or total revenue of $4.5 billion, while ARM in the EMEA region grew 3% to 11.11, or $3.29 billion in total revenue. Meanwhile, ARM growth was flat in the APAC region at $7.34, or $1.2 billion in total revenue, and LATAM fell 7% to $8, or $1.23 billion in total revenue.

Netflix’s reported a 52% year over year increase in operating income to $2.27 billion and an operating margin of 22.2% during the quarter. It also generated $1.38 billion in free cash flow during the quarter and had $1.54 billion in net cash from operating activities.

As it looks to the first quarter of 2025, Netflix is forecasting 11.2% year over year revenue growth to $10.42 billion, which is modestly below its full-year guidance due to the timing of price changes and seasonality in its ads business. It also expects net income of $2.44 billion, earnings per share of $5.58, operating income of $2.94 billion and an operating margin of 28.2%.

For full year 2025, Netflix expects revenue growth of 12% to 14% to somewhere between $43.5 billion to $44.5 billion, up $500 million from the prior forecast. As a result, it’s targeting a 29% operating margin for 2025, up from previous guidance of 28%.

Netflix hikes prices as ad tier on track for ‘sufficient scale’ in 2025

In addition to its quarterly results, Netflix revealed that it would increase the price of most of its plans in the U.S., Canada, Portugal and Argentina, including the first for its ad tier.

Under the new pricing in the U.S., Netflix’s ad-supported tier will increase by $1 to $7.99 per month, while the Premium tier will increase $2 to $24.99 per month. Additionally, the ad-free Standard plan will increase from $15.49 a month to $17.99 a month. The cost of adding an extra member to a plan has also increased by $1, to $8.99 in the U.S. However, the cost of adding an extra member to a plan with ads still remains $6.99 a month.

In November, Netflix revealed that its ad tier has grown to 70 million monthly active users globally. The offering now accounts for over 55% of new sign-ups in the 12 countries where it is available, and its membership base grew nearly 30% quarter over quarter. Without disclosing specifics, the company said it has doubled its ad revenue in 2024 and expects to do the same in 2025.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said 2025 would be the year the ad tier transitions from the crawl to walking stage, noting the offering is on track to reach “sufficient scale” in all of the markets where it’s available.

The company will introduce an Extra Member with Ads feature in 10 of its ad-tier markets to give subscribers additional choice and flexibility. It also plans to roll out its in-house advertising technology globally through 2025, with Canada already operating solely on the new platform and the U.S. slated to begin in April.

Netflix’s live events remain focused on ‘big, memorable moments’

As Netflix continues to ramp up its live events programming to bolster its revenue growth going forward, the company said it would focus on delivering “big, memorable moments” rather than on the more expensive proposition of acquiring rights to large regular-season sports packages.

“Although our live programming will likely be a small percentage of our total view hours and content expense, we think the eventized nature will result in outsized value to both our members and our business,” the company said.

Looking ahead, the company’s live programming will include weekly WWE matches, the SAG awards, John Mulaney’s new variety talk show and the return of the NFL on Christmas Day. Netflix has also secured the U.S. rights for FIFA’s Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.

The post Netflix Tops 300 Million Subscribers Globally, Adds Record-Breaking 19 Million in Q4 appeared first on TheWrap.

“Back in Action” scored the biggest Netflix weekend debut an English language movie has seen since 2022.

The Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz-led action movie brought in 46.8 million views on Netflix during its opening weekend, marking the most views in a premiere weekend for an English-language movie since 2022’s “The Adam Project.”

“Back in Action,” which reached No. 1 in 85 countries, was the most-watched English language movie for the week of Jan. 13, outpacing viewership for “The Secret Life of Pets 2,” which took the No. 2 spot with 8.9 million views, and “The Secret Life of Pets,” which was third on the list with 5.2 million views. “Knight and Day” took fourth place with 5.2 million views, holiday thriller “Carry-On” took fifth place with 3.6 million views and “Despicable Me 3” took sixth place with 3.4 million views.

On the TV side, “American Primeval” jumped to become the No. 1 most-watched English series of the week with 14.3 views, growing from its debut viewership of 10.4 million during the week of Jan. 6, when the limited series came in second place on the list behind Harlan Coben’s “Missing You.”

“American Primeval” outpaced the Season 2 debut of “XO, Kitty,” which brought in 14.2 million views in its first week on the streamer. Both “American Primeval” and “XO, Kitty” bumped “Missing You” down to third place on the TV list with 5.6 million views in its third week on Netflix.

Netflix’s Jan. 13 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw brought in 3.7 million views, making it the No. 4 most-watched TV show, and was followed by “Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action,” which scored 3.5 million views. The new season of “XO, Kitty” and upcoming new installment of “The Night Agent,” which premieres its second season in Jan. 23, also boosted the shows’ previous seasons onto the most-watched TV list, with “XO, Kitty” Season 1 coming in sixth place with 3.1 million views and “The Night Agent” Season 1 taking the No. 7 spot with 2.4 million views.

“Squid Game” Season 2 continued to dominate the non-English TV list, tallying up 13.2 million views in its fourth week on Netflix, still ranking as the most-watched non-English TV show of the week. Season 2 currently ranks as Netflix’s No. 2 most-watched non-English show ever with 165.7 million views to date, behind “Squid Game” Season 1, which still stands as Netflix’s most-watched non-English show ever with 265.2 million views to date since its 2021 release.

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