Yahoo Finance Netflix (NFLX) Set to Launch Ragnarok 3, Renew XO, Kitty
Netflix NFLX is strengthening its content offerings with the third and final season of Ragnarok, scheduled to launch on Aug 24. It is also renewing the popular series XO, Kitty for a second season.
Ragnarok is the modern adaptation of Norse mythology set in a small town in Norway. It follows the teenager Magne’s journey from a child to an adult and his fight against giants.
XO, Kitty is a young adult romantic comedy influenced by Netflix’s popular To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before movie franchise. Its first season debuted at #2 on the English TV List with 72.1 million hours viewed.
Other notable renewals include Physical: 100, the first unscripted show to become Netflix’s most popular non-English TV program. Other notable additions to the portfolio include the Brazilian animated series Wake Up, Carlo! and the Thai series DELETE (Jun 28).
Netflix has been focused on expanding its content with shows of different genres and languages. Its recently launched Korean action series Bloodhounds entered the Top ten list for the week of Jun 5 in the #2 spot, with 27.97 million hours viewed, along with Korean dramas The Good Bad Mother (26.06 million hours viewed) and Doctor Cha (25.32 million hours viewed). Colombia’s Fake Profile maintained its #1 position with 64.73 million hours viewed.
Netflix, Inc. Price and Consensus
Netflix, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Netflix, Inc. Quote
Netflix’s international content pipeline also includes movies and shows in different languages, including Danish, German, Korean and Sami.
The company is set to launch six new Korean shows, See You in My 19th Life (premiering Jun 17), King the Land (premiering Jun 17), Behind Your Touch, Destined with You, A Time Called You (premiering in the third quarter of 2023) and Doona! (premiering in the fourth quarter of 2023). It is also set to launch the Swedish drama thriller A Day and a Half on Sep 1.
Netflix’s Prospects Bright in 2023
Netflix shares have surged 51% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s return of 12.3%. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) have also outperformed Disney DIS and Apple AAPL but underperformed Amazon AMZN. Shares of Apple, Amazon, and Disney have returned 43.2%, 51.3% and 7%, respectively. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The company's prospects remain bright due to a diversified content portfolio, cheaper ad-supported plans and a password-sharing initiative despite stiff competition from Disney, Apple and Amazon.
Netflix’s ad-supported cheaper plans are gaining user attention. It launched its ad-supported service on Nov 3, 2022, with the basic plan costing $6.99 a month in the United States.
Netflix launched its paid password-sharing model in the United States on May 23, notifying members that their accounts cannot be shared for free with users outside their households.
According to Antenna, NFLX experienced an increase in subscribers during the four days following the announcement. It gained around 100K daily sign-ups on May 26 and May 27, higher than any other four-day period in the United States since 2019. Its average daily sign-ups reached 73K during that period, up 102% from the prior 60-day average.
Netflix already launched the paid sharing model in Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal in first-quarter 2023. Moreover, NFLX has plans to launch the paid-sharing model in major markets like Brazil, Britain, France and Mexico.
Disney followed in the footsteps of Netflix to offer its ad-supported tier starting Dec 8, 2022. Its streaming service, Disney+, as of Apr 1, 2023, had 157.8 million paid subscribers compared with 161.8 million as of Dec 31, 2022.
Further, Amazon is reportedly planning an ad-supported tier for Prime Video. The company is likely to give Prime subscribers the option to pay more for an ad-free alternative if it introduces ads in Prime Video.
Nevertheless, Netflix is expected to continue dominating the streaming space, attributable to heavy investments in the production and distribution of localized, foreign-language content.
For the second quarter of 2023, total revenues are anticipated to be $8.242 billion, suggesting growth of 3.4% year over year or 6% on a forex-neutral basis. Netflix forecasts earnings of $2.84 per share, indicating an almost 20% decline from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.
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