Netflix surpasses 200mn paid subscribers

Paid subscribers for Netflix surpassed the 200 million mark in 2020 as Covid-19 restrictions helped it to gain viewership, the streaming giant has said.

The numbers were revealed on Tuesday as Netflix reported its results for the fourth quarter which saw an addition of over 8.5 million paid subscribers to the platform.

Average paid streaming memberships increased 23 per cent year over year in Q4, while average revenue per membership was flat year over year both on a reported and foreign exchange neutral basis, the company said.

"Since the start of 2018, our paid memberships have risen from 111m to 204 million and our average revenue per membership has grown from $9.88 to $11.02, despite significant F/X (foreign exchange) headwinds," Netflix said.

"This approach has allowed us to organically increase revenue by $4-$5 billion annually over the past several years," it added.

In the fourth quarter, Netflix reported revenue of $6.64 billion.

"Revenue was 1 per cent higher than our guidance forecast, as paid net adds exceeded our 6.0 million projection by 2.5 million," the company saidFor the full year, Netflix  added a record 37 million paid memberships, achieved $25 billion in annual revenue - over 24 per cent year over year - and grew operating profit 76 per cent to $4.6 billion.

"For Q1'21, we expect paid net adds of 6.0m vs. last Q1's 15.8 million, which included the impact from the initial Covid-19 lockdowns," the company said.