After Announcing Huge Profits And Growth In Subscribers, Just How Much Is Netflix Worth?

Netflix is big money these days. It's featuring on awards lists like the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, it's got millions upon millions of subscribers worldwide and it looks like changing the way people watch films and TV forever.

Even the mighty Sky TV has announced that it is ditching the famous satellite dish in a move that is partly to keep up with the success of Netflix and - to a lesser extent - Amazon Prime.

The biggest stars and the biggest shows are now on Netflix - Stranger Things and Ozark are just two of the shows that have gone on to be ridiculously successful.

Oddly enough, the critically panned Will Smith film Bright has attracted a load of viewers on the platform.

This is because, as Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said: "Critics are an important part of the artistic process, but are... pretty disconnected from the commercial prospects of a film."

The CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings agreed: "The critics are pretty disconnected from the mass appeal,"

They've got a point too. And the statistics back it up. Netflix has just announced that for the fourth financial quarter of 2017 they increased their number of subscribers by more than 8 million.

This makes the whole company worth more than £70.2bn ($100bm) and gives them more than enough cash to pay Will Smith to do whatever it is that Will Smith wants to do for the rest of time, you'd imagine.

Some reports reckon that the stock price of Netflix has doubled in a little over a year. It's still borrowing billions to keep the list of films, shows and originals coming, but it has become a giant of the market nonetheless.

This is a world away from where it was only a few years ago. You might not know it, but Netflix launched in 1998 as an online DVD rental service (remember DVDs?) sort of like LoveFilm in the UK.

It massively benefitted from introducing streaming services in 2007 and started producing its own stuff in 2013, but only five years ago it looked like the whole house of cards might be about to collapse.

The company was in financial turmoil and it had just separated the DVD rental and streaming parts of the business.

Needless to say, they didn't go under and have pretty much been on the up and up since then.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Movies, TV and Film, Money, Interesting, UK Entertainment, US Entertainment, Netflix, Will Smith

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a freelance journalist and LADbible contributor. He graduated from University of London with a BA in Philosophy before studying for a Masters in Journalism at the University of Salford. He has previously written for the M.E.N Group as well as working for several top professional sports clubs. Contact him on [email protected]

@TPWagwim