Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Netflix Q3

General

  • "After a challenging first half, we believe we’re on a path to reaccelerate growth. The key is pleasing members."
  • "We think our bingeable release model helps drive substantial engagement, especially for newer titles."
  • "Our existing plans remain ad free."
  • To stop providing subs forecasts from 23Q1
  • Strong USD impact 2022E $1b on rev, $0.8b on oper income; oper margin target (19-20%) on track but lower if USD remains above Jan 2022 level
  • Targets FCF: 2022 $1b (+/-  few 100m), 2023 substantial growth
  • Growth rates excluding currency effects:
    • 22Q3
      • Total streamers (223m) +4.5% (lowest ever)
      • ARM ($11.85) +8%
      • Revenues ($7.93b) +13%
    • 22Q4E
      • Total streamers (228m) +2.6%
      • ARM +6%
      • Revenues ($7.78b) +9%
  • Margins
    • Gross margin (after content amortisation) 39.6% (down from a peak 21H1).
    • Marketing expense 7.2% of revenues (roughly at a low)
    • Technology & Development roughly flat at ~8.5% of revenues
    • Operating margin 19.3%
  • Cash flow
    • Cash spent on streaming content $4.52b in Q3, $17.8b TTM (stable for 4 quarters)
    • Cash spending-to-amortisation ratio 1.24x (peaked at 1,75x in 19Q4)
    • Cash spent per net add $1,884 (peak)
    • Cash spent per retained sub $20.4 (longer term roughly flat)
    • Cash & equivalents $6.11b. Last debt issue 20Q2, then bottomed at $5.82b in 22Q2.
Games
  • "We now have 35 games on service (all included in every Netflix subscription without in-game ads or in-app purchases) and we’re seeing some encouraging signs of gameplay leading to higher retention." + 55 games in development
  • Animal Logic acquisition [see 220719] to impact 22Q4 cashflow
  • Plans new game studio in S California
  • Considers cloud gaming service
Password sharing
  • To start charging sharers extra for borrowers from early 2023.
  • Borrowers may create own subscription, perhaps the Basic With Ads tier.
  • Borrowers can migrate their profiles using Profile Transfer.
Main points
  • Back to subscriber growth.
  • Heavy USD impact.
  • Focus on customer: content (originals) & binge viewing.
  • Games becoming more important.
  • Password sharing attacked with charging plan, cheaper tier and Profile Transfer.
  • Margins could be expanded, as scale builds, but games delay the process.
  • Content spending stabilising in absolute terms.


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