The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers – far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

“We had a plan to reaccelerate growth and we delivered on that plan,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during a video call discussing the results.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters predicted the company’s ad sales will double during the next year while remaining a just a sliver of total revenue that will continue to be propelled by subscription fees.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Peters said in a video call with investors. But he predicted Netflix’s foray into ads would eventually prove to be as successful as its recent crackdown on password sharing was.

Although he was impressed by most of Netflix’s report, Forrester Research analyst Mike Proulx called the slowdown in subscriber growth “concerning,” especially in the U.S., where the company is finding it increasingly difficult to attract more viewers.

“That’s why accelerating growth via advertising becomes paramount to Netflix’s go-forward strategy,” Proulx said.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

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The streaming platform will provide live coverage of the bout between the 27-year-old Paul and 57-year-old Tyson, who hasn’t fought since he took on Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition in November 2020. Paul and Tyson will be the main event of the first combat sports show for Netflix in its recent forays into live sports production.

It’s still uncertain whether this bout will be staged as an actual pro fight or an exhibition, particularly given the age of Tyson, who will be 58 by July. The specifics still must be approved by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which regulates boxing in the state.

Tyson posts workout videos on social media in which he looks sharp in training, but boxing is dangerous at any age. The California State Athletic Commission required his bout against Jones to be an exhibition — essentially a lively sparring session.

Paul built a significant fan following as a YouTube influencer before he embarked on a professional boxing career four years ago. He has won nine of 10 fights with six knockouts against mostly undistinguished opponents, including several mixed martial artists and a fellow YouTuber.

His only loss came last year to Tommy Fury, the less-accomplished half brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

“My sights are set on becoming a world champion, and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion of the world, the baddest man on the planet and the most dangerous boxer of all time. Time to put Iron Mike to sleep,” Paul wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Iron Mike” Tyson was the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987-90. He retired in 2005 after winning 50 fights, 44 by knockout. His entertaining exhibition bout with Jones was unofficially ruled a draw.

“I’m very much looking forward to stepping into the ring with Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas,” said Tyson, who was in the crowd in Saudi Arabia last year when Paul lost to Fury. “He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT. It’s a full circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch; as I started him off on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones and now I plan to finish him.”

Paul had his second pro bout on the undercard of the Tyson-Jones fight, knocking out former NBA player Nate Robinson. His most recent fight was last Saturday, when he stopped journeyman professional boxer Ryan Bourland.

Paul has gradually raised his level of competition in recent years while pursuing his dream of fighting for a real world title. A bout against the still-revered Tyson would be a sidestep on that quest, but still his highest-profile stage yet.

Paul’s company, Most Valuable Promotions, is partnering with Netflix to stage the show.

The fight card at the Dallas Cowboys’ home stadium will be the third venture into live sporting events for Netflix, which staged a golf/auto racing crossover event last November. Last weekend, the streaming giant held The Netflix Slam, an exhibition tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix registered its third-consecutive quarter of accelerating subscriber growth in the final three months of 2023, closing out a comeback year that included a crackdown on viewers freeloading on the video-streaming service and a smattering of price hikes.

The fourth-quarter results announced Tuesday provided further evidence that Netflix was able to come up with a formula that produced a spike in subscribers even as it became more expensive to watch its lineup of TV shows and movies.

Netflix signaled it will try to justify the higher subscription prices — and perhaps reel in more advertisers to a low-cost plan that includes commercials — with a $10 billion deal announced Tuesday that will bring the popular wrestling program, WWE’s “Raw,” to its service.

That weekly show, set to move to Netflix next year, will supplement a smorgasbord of TV shows that include the likes of the Emmy-award winning black comedy “Beef” and the Oscar-nominated film, “Maestro.”

Drawing cards like that helped the Los Gatos, California, company add 13.1 million worldwide subscribers during the October-December period, well above analyst projections, according to FactSet Research. The holiday season gains — the biggest Netflix has ever posted in the fourth quarter — exceeded the 8.8 million additional subscribers that Netflix posted in the July-September period, which in turn jumped above the numbers recorded in the quarter starting the year.

The rising tide of customers left Netflix with more than 260 million global subscribers at the end of 2023 — an annual increase of nearly 30 million subscribers. Last year’s performance was a stark contrast to 2022’s increase of 8.9 million subscribers — a lackluster showing that raised questions whether the video-streaming pioneer was losing steam amid stiffening competition for viewers.

But Netflix managed to bounce back, primarily through the rollout of a low-priced streaming plan that injected commercials into its service for the first time, combined with an effort to block viewers who had been accessing the service for free by using the passwords of paying customers.

At the same time, Netflix tightened its programming budget while also increasing the price of its top-tier streaming plan by 10% to help appease investors seeking higher profits. That paid off in the latest quarter, which saw Netflix earn $937.8 million, or $2.11 per share, up from net income of $55.3 million, or 12 cents per share, the same time in the previous year. Revenue climbed 13% from the prior year to $8.83 billion.

The revenue exceeded analysts’ forecasts, while earnings per share missed analyst targets, partly because of a $239 million charge tied to its foreign debt.

Netflix’s strategy has been a hit with Wall Street, reflected in a 65% increase in its stock price last year while shares of other media giants such as Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery have struggled to prove they can make money from their video-streaming services. The company’s shares rose more than 8% in Tuesday’s extended trading after its fourth-quarter numbers came out.

Netflix “is ahead of peers with new revenue streams, and no one can compete with its technology platform, programming, and global distribution,” CFRA Research analyst Kenneth Leon wrote in a recent assessment of the streaming and cable-TV landscape.

The challenge facing Netflix now is coming up with ways to sustain last year’s momentum, with the “Raw” deal making it seem like live programming is now being eyed by the company as fertile ground.

“If we continue to execute well and drive continuous improvement — with a better slate, easier discovery, and more fandom — while establishing ourselves in new areas like advertising and games, we believe we have a lot more room to grow,” Netflix management wrote in a Tuesday letter to shareholders accompanying its fourth-quarter review.

In a conference call with analysts, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters predicted it will be several years before ad sales bring in significant revenue. But the company is still benefiting from the $7-per-month price for the plan with commercials, with that option now accounting for about 40% of its new subscribers in the markets where it’s available.

Peters told analysts that Netflix remains confident that it can still convince more viewers now using the passwords of paying customers to ante up for their own plans. “That (crackdown) will improve our growth for years,” Peter said.

Analysts have also been anticipating the company will amplify a push into video games that Netflix embarked upon in 2021 during the throes of the pandemic.

While emphasizing the video game segment remains relatively small, Netflix says it’s starting to see more subscribers spending more time on its service engaged in that pastime instead of watching TV series and films.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix enjoyed its biggest springtime spurt in subscribers since the early days of the pandemic three years ago, providing the latest sign that a recent crackdown on password sharing and the rollout of a cheaper subscription option are paying off.

The video streaming service added 5.9 million subscribers during the April-June period, according to numbers released Wednesday along with its latest quarterly financial results. The gains easily surpassed the roughly 2.2 million additional subscribers that analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had anticipated. Netflix ended June with 238.4 million worldwide subscribers.

Investors seemed unsatisfied, perhaps rattled by management commentary in a shareholder letter warning that “quite a competitive battle” continues to unfold against the backdrop of ongoing strikes by both the writers and actors union in the U.S. that threaten to clog the pipelines feeding entertainment to streaming services. Netflix’s stock price fell 8% in Wednesday’s extended trading. The drop could also reflect some investors locking in profits that have accrued while the shares have climbed by more than 50% so far this year.

Money manager Louis Navellier said Netflix now appears “locked and loaded” again after going through a turbulent stretch that included losing 1.2 million subscribers during the first half of last year. Even though Netflix has bounced back this year, Investing.com analyst Jesse Cohen believes another slowdown may be coming. “It will be a challenge for Netflix to sustain this pace of subscriber growth in the future,” Cohen said.

Netflix predicted its subscriber growth during the July-September period will be similar to the numbers posted from April through June.

The second-quarter performance marked Netflix’s biggest spring —- traditionally the company’s slowest stretch of growth — since gaining 10 million subscribers during the same period in 2020 under dramatically different market conditions.

In 2020, people were still largely stuck at home and looking for ways to keep themselves entertained while governments around the world struggled to find a way to contain the spread of pandemic. Now, Netflix finds itself trying to bounce back from a growth slowdown amid stiff video streaming competition and inflationary pressures that have caused many households to clamp down on spending, especially on discretionary items such as entertainment.

As an antidote, Netflix last year introduced a low-priced option that includes commercials and then began to block the rampant sharing of passwords that has enabled an estimated 100 million people worldwide to watch its TV series and films for free. Freeloading viewers are now being required to open their own accounts unless a subscriber with a standard or premium plan agrees to pay an $8 monthly surcharge to allow more people living in different households to watch.

In its shareholder letter, management said the crackdown on password sharing is resulting in a “healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships.”

And Netflix still isn’t done tinkering. As part of Wednesday’s earnings release, Netflix also revealed it’s phasing out its cheapest ad-free plan – a service that costs $10 in the U.S. Existing subscribers already paying for this basic plan will be allowed to keep it. The shift appears designed to get more people to switch to the $7 monthly plan that includes commercials in hopes of boosting ad revenue or sign up for its $15.50 monthly standard plan or $20 monthly premium plan.

“There is just tons of work ahead of us, tons of opportunity,” Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters said during a Wednesday conference call.

The pricing changes that have already been made helped Netflix boost its second-quarter revenue by 3% from the same time last year to $8.2 billon, falling below analyst forecasts. Netflix earned $1.49 billion during the period, compared with $1.44 billion last year. But earnings per share came in at $3.29 per share, eclipsing the average analyst estimate of $2.85 per share, according to FactSet.

Netflix didn’t delve into the potential fallout from the current walkout in the U.S. by writers and actors. The dispute revolves largely around the payment system used in video streaming and the rise of artificial intelligence technology threatening to exploit the work of humans and eventually replace them.

Unlike traditional movie and TV studios in the U.S., Netflix has been able to keep feeding its entertainment pipeline with shows that it has been able to use to keep luring in and retaining subscribers.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos deflected a question about how long Netflix could keep releasing new series and films if the strike drags on past Labor Day. “It’s beside the point,” Sarandos said during the conference call. “The real point is we need to get this strike to a conclusion so we can continue to move forward.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix shed almost 1 million subscribers during the spring amid tougher competition and soaring inflation that’s squeezing household budgets, heightening the urgency behind the video streaming service’s effort to launch a cheaper option with commercial interruptions.

The April-June contraction of 970,000 accounts, announced Tuesday as part of Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report, is by far the largest quarterly subscriber loss in the company’s 25-year history. It could have been far worse, though, considering Netflix management released an April forecast calling for a loss of 2 million subscribers during the second quarter.

Netflix was probably spared from deeper losses by the ongoing popularity of “Stranger Things,” its science fiction/horror series that debuted in 2016. Following the release of the series’ fourth season in late May, Netflix said, viewers watched a total of 1.3 billion hours of it over the next four weeks — more than any other English-language series in the service’s history.

The less severe loss in subscribers, combined with an outlook calling for a return to growth in the July-September period. helped lift Netflix’s battered stock by 7% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings didn’t try to sugarcoat things during a Tuesday conference call about the results. “It’s tough losing a million subscribers and calling it a success,” he said.

The company’s April-June regression follows a loss of 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of the year, marking the first time Netflix’s subscriber totals have shrunk in consecutive quarters since its transition from offering DVD-by-mail rentals to video streaming began 15 years ago.

The loss of nearly 1.2 million subscribers during first half of this year also provides a start contrast to the pandemic-driven growth that Netflix enjoyed during the first half of 2020 when its streaming service picked up nearly 26 million subscribers.

Despite the downturn, Netflix still earned $1.4 billion, or $3.20 per share during the quarter, a 6% increase from the same time last year. Revenue rose 9% from the same time last year to nearly $8 billion.

Netflix ended June with 220.7 million worldwide subscribers. far more than any of its new competitors such as Walt Disney Co. and Apple. And in a hopeful sign, Netflix management predicted its service will add about 1 million subscribers during the July-September period, signaling the worst of its slump may be over.

Although Netflix’s springtime subscriber losses weren’t as bad as investors and management feared, the downturn served as a grim reminder of the challenges now facing the Los Gatos, California, company after a decade of unbridled growth.

Netflix’s stock price has plunged by nearly 70% so far this year, wiping out about $180 billion in shareholder wealth. Since then, other video streaming services have made big strides in attracting viewers, with Apple winning accolades for its award-winning line-up of TV series and films while Disney’s popular line-up of family-friendly titles continues to gain traction.

At the same time, Netflix has been raising its prices to help pay for its own original programming, just as the highest inflation rates in 40 years have led consumers to curb spending on discretionary items such as entertainment.

“Netflix is still the leader in video streaming but unless it finds more franchises that resonate widely, it will eventually struggle to stay ahead of competitors that are after its crown,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Ross Benes.

Sensing potential trouble brewing, Netflix began branching out last year by adding free video games to its streaming service.

But that obviously hasn’t been enough to propel subscriber growth, prompting Netflix’s April announcement that it will crack down on the rampant sharing of subscriber passwords and take another step it once scorned by offering a less expensive tier of its service that will include commercial interruptions. Without providing further specifics, Netflix said Tuesday that both the ad-supported plan and the crackdown on password sharing will begin early next year. The company didn’t say how much the streaming option with commercials will cost.

Netflix took another step toward putting together the ad=supported option last week when it announced it will team up with Microsoft to deliver the commercials.

“We have some headwinds right now and we are navigating through them,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at the end of Tuesday’s conference call. “We’ve seen entertainment formats come and go, we’ve seen entertainment business models come and go, and we have managed to grow through all of them, though all kinds of economic conditions and through all levels of competition.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix suffered its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, causing its shares to plunge 25% in extended trading amid concerns that the pioneering streaming service may have already seen its best days.

The company’s customer base fell by 200,000 subscribers during the January-March period, according to its quarterly earnings report released Tuesday It’s the first time that Netflix’s subscribers have fallen since the streaming service became available throughout most of the world outside of China six years ago. The drop this year stemmed in part from Netflix’s decision to withdraw from Russia to protest the war against Ukraine, resulting in a loss of 700,00 subscribers.

Even so, Netflix acknowledged its problems are deep rooted by projecting a loss of another 2 million subscribers during the April-June period.

If the stock drop extends into Wednesday’s regular trading session, Netflix shares will have lost more than half of their value so far this year — wiping out about $150 billion in shareholder wealth in less than four months.

Netflix also lost 800,000 subscribers in 2011 after it unveiled plans to begin charging separately for its then-nascent streaming service, which had been bundled for free with its traditional DVD-by-mail service. The customer backlash to that move elicited an apology from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings for botching the execution of the spin-off.

The service also saw a decline in U.S. subscribers in 2019.

But the latest subscriber loss was far worse than a forecast by Netflix management for a conservative gain of 2.5 million subscribers. The news deepens troubles that have been mounting for the streaming since a surge of signups from a captive audience during the pandemic began to slow.

It marks the fourth time in the last five quarters that Netflix’s subscriber growth has fallen below the gains of the previous year. Now investors fear that its streaming service may be mired in a malaise that has been magnified by stiffening competition from well-funded rivals such as Apple and Walt Disney.

The setback follows the company’s addition of 18.2 million subscribers in 2021, its weakest annual growth since 2016. That contrasted with an increase of 36 million subscribers during 2020 when people were corralled at home and starved for entertainment, which Netflix was able to quickly and easily provide with its stockpile of original programming.

Netflix has previously predicted that it will regain its momentum, but is now starting to acknowledge that needs to take action. Among other things, Netflix signaled that it will likely crack down on the sharing of subscriber passwords that has enabled multiple households to access its service from a single account.

The Los Gatos, California, company estimated that about 100 million households worldwide are watching its service for free by using the account of a friend or another family member, including 30 million in the U.S. and Canada. To stop the practice and prod more people to pay for their own accounts, Netflix indicated it may expand a test introduced last month in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica that allows subscribers to add up to two people living outside their households to their accounts for an additional fee.

“Account sharing as a percentage of our paying membership hasn’t changed much over the years, but, coupled with the first factor, means it’s harder to grow membership in many markets — an issue that was obscured by our COVID growth,” Netflix said Tuesday in a letter to its shareholders.

Netflix ended March with 221.6 million worldwide subscribers.

With the pandemic easing, people have been finding other things to do, and other video streaming services are working hard to lure new viewers with their own award-winning programming. Apple, for instance, held the exclusive streaming rights to “CODA,” which eclipsed Netflix’s “Power of The Dog,” among other movies, to win Best Picture at last month’s Academy Awards.

Escalating inflation over the past year has also squeezed household budgets, leading more consumers to rein in their spending on discretionary items. Despite that pressure, Netflix recently raised its prices in the U.S., where it has its greatest household penetration — and where it’s had the most trouble finding more subscribers. In the most recent quarter, Netflix lost 640,000 subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, prompting management to point out that most of its future growth will come in international markets.

Netflix also is trying to give people another reason to subscribe by adding video games at no extra charge — a feature that began to roll out last year.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two former Netflix employees who criticized anti-transgender comments on Dave Chappelle’s TV special are dropping labor complaints and one has resigned from the company, it was announced Monday.

Terra Field, a senior software engineer who is trans, announced that Field had voluntarily resigned as of Sunday.

“This isn’t how I thought things would end, but I’m relieved to have closure,” Field said in a resignation letter posted online.

Chappelle’s “The Closer” first aired on Oct. 1 and gained millions of views. However, Chapelle’s disparaging remarks about the transgender community raised protests within Netflix and from activists. About 30 Netflix workers staged a an Oct. 20 walkout and joined a rally at Netflix offices in Los Angeles.

Field was suspended by the company after attending a business meeting for senior executives but was quickly reinstated.

Field and B. Pagels-Minor, a game launch operations program manager who also is trans, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. They alleged that Netflix retaliated against the workers to keep them from speaking up about working conditions, including “Netflix’s products and the impact of its product choices on the LGBTQ+ community.”

“We have resolved our differences in a way that acknowledges the erosion of trust on both sides and, we hope, enables everyone to move on,” Netflix said in a statement Monday.

Pagels-Minor has acknowledged that they were the employee that Netflix fired last month for allegedly disclosing confidential financial information about what it paid for “The Closer.” The information was referenced in a Bloomberg news article.

Pagels-Minor has denied the allegations.

Netflix ran into a buzz-saw of criticism not only with the special but in how internal memos responded to employees’ concerns, including co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ assertion that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”

Sarandos also wrote that Netflix doesn’t allow titles that are “designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe ‘The Closer’ crosses that line.”

Netflix continues to make the special available for streaming.

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We were very close, you see, as my family would attest to that. I used to come home from work every day, pour me a cold one (Ginger Ale, that is. I can’t drink any alcoholic beverage. God is watching) and we would spend hours together; watching a game, or idly flipping through the channels, or previewing some YouTube videos, or maybe a little Netflix—without the chill part—as my wife would always be around. She did frown upon my spending so much time with him, but in the end, she would just leave us alone, as she had better things to do. I was not ready for the call when my kids told me that there was something terribly wrong with him. They couldn’t see the light in him, whereas he was always so bright and colorful. There was no sound emanating from him, whereas there was always music and laughter. It was as if he had suddenly gone dead. Indeed, he was dead.

I tried to revive him, but I didn’t know how to properly resuscitate him, as I lacked proper knowledge and training. I didn’t even know where to begin. All I could do was to pull the plug out, and then try to plug him back in. There was some momentary activity, but he would fade to black, again and again. I had to stop trying, once I realized that it was of no use, and I probably had lost him forever.

I didn’t know what to do. There were no games that I could watch any longer. There were no movies that I could play. There were no videos to entertain me. I felt lost and I felt miserable. I just sat in my usual chair, day after day, fiddling with the remote, pressing the power button over and over, hoping for a miracle. But, alas, there are no miracles. Prayer doesn’t work where technology has failed.

It was almost to the day of our fifth anniversary when he decided to leave me. I could remember the day I brought him home, as vividly as the pictures that he showed me for all those years. I had asked my wife to use her credit card, as my credit was worthless. I promised to make the minimum payments on time and without lapse. It cost me over two thousand dollars, but it was all worth it when I unpacked him and put him up on a pedestal. He was mine and I was happy.

After almost five years, the amount that I owed was almost the same as it was on day one. Apparently, paying only the minimum amount due on credit card does not reduce the debt by that much, as the interest accrued is almost the same as the minimum payment. It would have taken me another seventeen years to pay the whole amount, if it wasn’t for the three stimulus checks that I’ve received. It took two US presidents for me to pay off my bill. As soon as my final payment cleared, my television stopped working. It was fade to black, literally, as there was no picture visible on the screen. It was just black screen and nothing else.

After three days of mourning, as is the custom of my people, I started to look around. To my amazement, there was a better friend available at Walmart, for only five hundred dollars. A bigger, better, and technologically more advanced friend was on sale. By now, I had reestablished my credit to a point in the last five years, where I now had my own credit card with just enough credit limit to buy him.

This unpacking was even more thrilling than the last one. My new friend looked shinier, sleeker, and more slender than the worthless piece of junk sitting in my living room. I had to make room for my new love. I couldn’t wait to drag the carcass of my old love out to the garbage can. I didn’t even ask for any help from my kids. I didn’t even care that my dragging the body on the concrete was causing it to break into pieces, which I left for someone else to clean. I was motivated to the point that I picked up the broken body, and with a heave and a ho, swung it over the four-yard trash can and dropped it ruthlessly against the back wall.

The noise that the cracked screen made, was still ringing in my ears, as I plugged my new friend in and started flipping through the channels, looking for something new and exciting to watch. Here’s to another five good years. At least I carried a much smaller debt this time. I am sure I can pay this debt off in the next five years by making just the minimum payment due. Now, that’s what I call progress!

Muhammad Naaem • Columnist

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NEW YORK (AP) — Steven Spielberg, a filmmaker synonymous with big-screen enchantment, has set a new deal with Netflix in which his production company, Amblin Partners, will make multiple feature films per year for the streaming giant.

The partnership, one long courted by Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, is a major get for the company that, amid increasing competition, brings perhaps the most beloved film director more officially into the streaming fold.

The deal announced Monday doesn’t specifically include any movies to be directed by Spielberg. This December, he will release “West Side Story” theatrically with Disney’s 20th Century Studios. Amblin has a separate deal with Universal Pictures for theatrical releases.

“At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the center of everything we do, and from the minute Ted and I started discussing a partnership, it was abundantly clear that we had an amazing opportunity to tell new stories together and reach audiences in new ways,” Spielberg said in a statement. “This new avenue for our films, alongside the stories we continue to tell with our longtime family at Universal and our other partners, will be incredibly fulfilling for me personally since we get to embark on it together with Ted, and I can’t wait to get started with him, Scott, and the entire Netflix team.”

Amblin, which takes its name from a 1968 short by Spielberg, has helped produce a wide variety of films outside of those made my Spielberg, including “1917” and “Green Book.” The two companies have previously worked together on TV series and the Aaron Sorkin movie “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a film co-produced by Amblin that was sold by Paramount Pictures to Netflix during the pandemic.

Spielberg has sometimes been seen as against a streaming future for movies. A Deadline Hollywood headline on Monday’s announcement wondered: “Hell Freezes Over?”

But Spielberg in 2019 argued against the anti-streaming impression associated with him. Reports around then circulated that Spielberg believed streaming releases — which he compared to made-for-TV movies — should vie for Emmys, not Oscars. “I’m a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever,” Spielberg said that year.

He clarified that big screen or small screen, “what really matters to me is a great story and everyone should have access to great stories.”

“However, I feel people need to have the opportunity to leave the safe and familiar of their lives and go to a place where they can sit in the company of others and have a shared experience — cry together, laugh together, be afraid together — so that when it’s over they might feel a little less like strangers,” Spielberg wrote in an email to the New York Times. “I want to see the survival of movie theaters. I want the theatrical experience to remain relevant in our culture.”

The lines have also blurred since then. While Netflix has given exclusive theatrical runs of a week or more to some of its most prominent releases, traditional studios like Disney and Warner Bros. have embraced more hybrid release models that send movies simultaneously to streaming services.

“Steven is a creative visionary and leader and, like so many others around the world, my growing up was shaped by his memorable characters and stories that have been enduring, inspiring and awakening,” said Sarandos. “We cannot wait to get to work with the Amblin team and we are honored and thrilled to be part of this chapter of Steven’s cinematic history.”

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SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Netflix’s pandemic-fueled subscriber growth is slowing far faster than anticipated as people who have been cooped at home are able to get out and do other things again.

The video-streaming service added 4 million more worldwide subscribers from January through March, its smallest gain during that three-month period in four years.

The performance reported Tuesday was about 2 million fewer subscribers than both management and analysts had predicted Netflix would add during the first quarter.

It marked a huge comedown from the same time last year when Netflix added nearly 16 million subscribers. That came just as governments around the world imposed lockdowns that created a huge captive audience for the leading video-streaming service.

Signaling that the trend is continuing, Netflix forecast an increase of just 1 million worldwide subscribers in the current April-June period, down from an increase of 10 million subscribers at the same time last year.

“It’s just a little wobbly right now,” Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said during a discussion of the company’s results streamed Tuesday.

The poor showing to start the year rattled investors, causing the Los Gatos, California, company’s stock to drop by more than 8% in extended trading, even though Netflix’s revenue hit analyst targets and its profit exceeded estimates.

Netflix earned $1.71 billion, or $3.75 per share, more than doubling from a year ago. Revenue climbed 24% from the same time last year to $7.16 billion.

The inevitable slowdown in subscriber growth had been widely telegraphed by Netflix’s management in repeated reminders that its gains were a pandemic-driven anomaly.

Now that a large swath of the U.S. population has been vaccinated, people are able to move around more freely and are finding other diversions besides watching TV series and movies on Netflix.

“It all boils down to COVID,” Spencer Neumann, Netflix’s chief financial officer, said Tuesday.

The big question is how big this year’s decline will be from last year’s full-year increase of 37 million worldwide subscribers — by far the biggest since Netflix expanded its DVD-by-rental service into video streaming 14 years ago.

Third Bride analyst Scott Kessler speculated this year’s sluggish start may pressure Netflix management to make changes in its pricing or fine tune its strategy to help boost its growth from one quarter to the next. “Or will the company continue to focus on the longer term?” Kessler wondered.

Netflix management sought to reassure investors in a letter that predicted subscriber growth would improve during the second half of the year as more TV series and movies that had to be delayed during the pandemic are finished and released.

But what happened during the first quarter signals Netflix may be headed toward a lackluster year. The last time Netflix started a year with a lower gain — 5.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2017 — the service ended up with an annual increase of 21.6 million subscribers.

Netflix management doesn’t make annual growth projections, maintaining that it’s difficult enough to predict how many subscribers its service will add from one quarter to the next.

Besides no longer benefiting from people being stuck at home most of the time, Netflix is also facing more competition than ever from a wide range of video streaming services from major companies such as Disney, Apple and HBO.

Netflix, though, remains far ahead of the rest of the pack, with nearly 208 million worldwide subscribers. It also benefits from an award-winning lineup of shows that include still-popular series such as “Stranger Things,” “The Crown,” and “Ozark,” with more potential hits always brewing in a video factory that plans to spend $17 billion on programming this year alone.

Both Hastings and Neumann downplayed the impact of tougher competition in their comments Tuesday.

“There is this big runway of growth if we stay focused and keep getting better,” Neumann said.

A large portion of Netflix’s programming has been been financed by debt, but the company no longer expects to have to borrow to foot those bills. What’s more, Netflix is now bringing in more cash than it is burning, something it has rarely done in the best.

After posting a positive cash flow of $1.9 billion last year, Netflix expects to break even this year.

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