Netflix to stream new show ‘Class’

American streaming platform Netflix will premiere a new show called Class, adapted from Spanish series Elite, on 3 February. It stars Gurfateh Pirzada, Anjali Sivaraman, Ayesha Kanga, Chayan Chopra, Chintan Rachchh, Cwaayal Singh, Madhyama Segal, Moses Koul, Naina Bhan, Piyush Khati and Zeyn Shaw.

Netflix that finished 2022 with 231 million paid subscriptions said it is looking to roll out paid sharing initiatives later this quarter.

The OTT platform launched a lower-priced, ad-supported tier in November which is available in 12 markets including the US, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Spain.

Paid net additions for Netflix stood at 7.7 million globally in the December quarter of 2022 versus 8.3 million in the same period in 2021. In the Asia and Pacific region, Netflix added 1.8 million paid members in the December quarter, lower than the 2.58 million added in the same period a year ago. The streamer doesn’t disclose India-specific numbers separately.

The fourth quarter saw year-over-year revenue growth of 2%, driven by a 4% increase in average paid memberships. ARM (average revenue per member) declined 2% year-over-year, but grew 5% on a foreign exchange neutral basis, Netflix said. Operating income of $550 million in Q4 was down versus $632 million in Q4 ‘21.

However, the company is likely to put in place curbs on password-sharing, which may add some extra subscribers.

Meanwhile, co-founder Reed Hastings, who previously gave up the sole CEO title to share it with the then chief content officer Ted Sarandos, is relinquishing his co-CEO title as well, Netflix said as part of its earnings release. Sarandos and chief product officer Greg Peters will become co-CEOs with Hastings serving as executive chairman, the company said.

In addition to these changes, Bela Bajaria, formerly head of global TV, has been appointed chief content officer and Scott Stuber is named chairman of Netflix film.