Streamer talks up recent talent show launch Star Search and looks ahead to Plimsoll’s Skyscraper Live
Netflix will increase its focus on live events and video podcasts in 2026 as it reveals it ended 2025 with a 15% profit rise.
In the final three months of last year, the streamer’s global revenues hit $12.05bn (£9bn), up almost 18% on the same period last year, while net income surpassed $2.42bn, slightly ahead of most analyst predictions.
In North America, Q4 revenues were up 18% to $5.34bn (£3.98bn), while EMEA rose the same percentage to hit $3.87bn (£2.88bn). Revenues in LatAm rose 15% to $1.42bn (£1.06bn) and APAC ticked up 17% to $1.42bn.
Full-year numbers for 2025 show a 16% revenue growth to $45bn (£33.5bn) and an operating margin rise of almost 30%. However, this did not stop shares sliding more than 5% in after-market trading, as concerns around the streamer’s $83bn (£61.8bn) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery continue to weigh on investors.
Netflix shares have slid by more than 20% since the streamer confirmed its plan to buy WBD, falling from $100 (£75) on 5 December to just under $83 (£62) today.
Engagement and focus
The streamer said its focus this year will include increasing its variety and quality of series and films, and ‘building out’ its live and video podcasts output.
Live programming has become a particular focus for the company over recent months, helping to drive sign-ups and advertising revenues, which more than doubled versus 2024 to over $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in 2025.
The company noted Star Search, a US-based talent show from Jesse Collins Entertainment with judges including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jelly Roll and Chrissy Teigen, which debuted on Tuesday. The series includes live voting from viewers, with live episodes dropping every Tuesday and Wednesday.
The streamer is also preparing Plimsoll Productions’ Skyscraper Live later this week, which will provide live coverage of Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb the Taipei 101 tower without ropes.
The company said live programming offers “the potential to deliver outsized value” and “drive disproportionate excitement and signups,” pointing to Jake Paul’s boxing match against Anthony Joshua in December and NFL matches on Christmas Day.
Netflixed added that it planned to “continue to innovate on product features, including interactive experiences such as live voting”, without providing specifics on other live shows.
It did, however, provide more detail on viewing habits in its bi-annual Engagement Report for the second half of 2025, which revealed that members watched 96 billion hours on Netflix in the last six months of the year, up 2% (or 1.5 billion hours) year on year and up 1% on the first six months.
Original big-hitters
Viewing of originals was up 9% year over year in the second half of 2025, with the final season of Stranger Things a standout with 120 million views. Notable successes included The Beast in Me (48 million), series two of Nobody Wants This (31 million) and Selling Sunset series nine (11 million).
Non-US highlights included Danish drama The Asset (24 million views), Brazil’s Rulers of Fortune (23 million), and Japan’s Last Samurai Standing from Japan (22 million) and Record of Ragnarok (13 million).
Key documentaries such as Being Eddie (12 million) and Babo from Germany (7 million) were noted, but there was a year-on-year decline in viewing of what Netflix terms as “non-branded” view hours.
The streamer said the shows, essentially third-party programming, “reflected a lower volume of licensed, second-run content” across most regions following an increased period of licensing during 2023-2024 as a result of the WGA strike.
Netflix added upcoming dramas such as Bridgerton series four, One Piece series two, The Night Agent series three and the return of drama Beef would drive its viewing in 2026, along with unscripted shows including America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders series three and Love is Blind series ten.
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