• by Wayne Friedman , April 18, 2023

Netflix missed on first-quarter subscriber estimates, with other mixed financial results, registering 1.75 new global subscribers.

Analysts were expecting 2.3 million. This sent its stock down heavily in after-market trading -- off 12% -- before recovering back to its initial close on Tuesday -- at $333.70 a share.

Global streaming now totals 232.5 million. Still, this year's results were a huge reversal from the 200,000 net loss in subscribers in the year-ago quarter -- the first time Netflix posted a net loss in subscribers.

Netflix's quarterly revenue is up nearly 4% to $8.16 billion versus a year ago.

Netflix said its anticipated rollout of the password-sharing crackdown will be delayed. It was originally planned to begin in the first quarter.

The company believes “some of the expected membership growth and revenue benefit will fall in the third quarter rather than second quarter.”

With regard to its ad-supported option released in November 2022, Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive officer, said the company is likely to offer a number of ad-supported options in the future.

Currently, the ad-supported plan -- priced at $6.99/month -- averages 95% of the same content that is on its original advertising-free option.

In the first-quarter period, U.S. and Canada revenue grew 8% versus a year ago to $3.6 billion.

Paid subscribers were up 100,000 to a total of 74.4 million. Average revenue per member dipped to $16.18 per month -- down from $16.23 from the previous fourth-quarter 2022 period.

For the next period -- the second quarter of 2023 -- Netflix says it is on track to meet its full-year financial objectives -- up 3% year-over-year to $8.2 billion.

On Tuesday, Netflix also announced that its founding DVD rental business will be closed down after 25 years -- on September 29th of this year.