• by Wayne Friedman , 4 hours ago

Addressing some of its daily usage concerns, Netflix says total worldwide engagement (viewership) of its content grew 2% to 97 billion hours in the first six months of 2026 -- despite competition from the Winter Olympics and World Cup.

During the same time period in 2025, engagement grew 1.5%.

These results came as part of the premium streamer’s second-quarter earnings/revenue report.

Netflix says that while “live” event programming now only comprises 5% of all content spend -- and around 1% of so of its “view” hours -- live content has helped to pull in new subscribers.

For the last five years, live content has been a major factor in contributing to six of its top-ten member sign-up days.

However, analysts still see softness in average daily viewing time among Netflix subscribers.

Viewing time was down 7% or to 1 hour and 33 minutes in 2025 versus the previous year, according to measurement service Digital i. Many believe this is a sign that engagement and interest in Netflix content are weakening.

This comes as a report from Bloomberg shows that viewing of second seasons of some new scripted TV shows has dropped from 30% to 70% from the initial first seasons. The shows included "The Night Agent,” “One Piece,” “Four Seasons,” “Running Point” and “Beef.”

Beginning in the first quarter of 2027, Netflix says, the “What We Watch” report -- which provides details about viewing and engagement of its shows -- will be released annually instead of semi-annually.

This may be intended “to reduce attention paid to time spent on the platform, particularly if future growth moderates further,” says Brian Wieser, media analyst of Madison and Wall.

Separately, Netflix says second-quarter revenue grew 13.4% to $12.6 billion, with net income at $3.4 billion -- up from $3.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025.

The company projects revenue will climb another 11% for its third quarter, with the full-year 2026 forecast coming in at $51 billion to $51.4 billion.

Madison & Wall estimates the company’s Q2 U.S. advertising revenue increased 85% to $388 million. Netflix says it is on track to achieve its projected goal of $3 billion in global advertising revenue for 2026; it was $1.5 billion in 2025.

Advertising was around 7% of Netflix’s total U.S. revenue. This summer Netflix is starting up programmatic availability for pause Ads and live advertising inventory.

“We believe that Netflix has become one of the industry’s most aggressive streaming platforms in terms of making inventory available programmatically,” Wieser says.