If it’s not the corporate motto but, it ought to be: Never depend Netflix out. On Wednesday, the streaming large beat Wall Street projections by reportingt a achieve of practically 9 million new subscribers worldwide and $8.5 billion in income for the third quarter of 2023, an almost 8 % enhance year-over-year. While that may all sound like a bunch of finance bro brouhaha, it’s additionally outstanding contemplating the very tumultuous three years the corporate—and Hollywood—has had.

Consider the corporate’s crackdown on password sharing. The long–planned killjoy marketing campaign rolled out within the US and UK in May 2023. It got here on the heels of a topsy-turvy time for streaming, when Netflix was dealing with elevated competitors from new streamers like Disney+ and HBO Max (now generally known as Max) and shedding subscribers for the first time in a decade. The transfer to quash password-sharing—which principally shut out customers who didn’t seem to dwell in the identical households because the account-holder—additionally landed shortly after the streamer pushed its much-hyped $7-per-month ad-supported tier.

For months it regarded as if Netflix’s shifts in plans, pricing, and password enforcement had been the strikes of an organization feeling the squeeze of further competitors and a loss of cool within the realm of public notion. As not too long ago as this week, analysts had been cutting the company’s stock price forecasts amid discuss that customers weren’t flocking to the brand new ad-supported tier. And but, in a letter to investors Wednesday asserting the corporate’s quarterly earnings, Netflix famous that membership in its ad-supported plans is up practically 70 % quarter-over-quarter. The streaming large additionally famous it has introduced “paid sharing”—which permits customers to share accounts for a further payment—to each area the place Netflix is on the market.

“The cancel reaction continues to be low, exceeding our expectations, and borrower households converting into full paying memberships are demonstrating healthy retention,” Netflix informed shareholders. In different phrases, earlier password-swappers aren’t quitting the service in disgust, and Netflix now has greater than 247 million paying subscribers around the globe.

Will all these subscribers stick round long-term, although? That’s an open query. In addition to its wholesome enhance in subscribers, Netflix additionally introduced on Wednesday that it’s elevating costs once more. Effective instantly, the corporate mentioned, individuals within the US, UK, and France would see the price of the streamer’s Basic plan leap from $9.99 monthly to $11.99. The Premium plan, in the meantime, climbs from $19.99 to $22.99. (Prices for the $6.99 ad-supported tier and $15.49 Standard plan stay unchanged.) It’s been greater than a 12 months since Netflix last increased prices, but when the streamer continues to ask for more cash whereas additionally limiting the quantity of people that can use every subscription, some subscribers could resolve Netflix isn’t price it.

Speaking of advantages: the Hollywood strikes. Even although the Writers Guild of America struck a deal with studios and script scribes are getting again to work, actors stay on strike, leaving many productions stalled. For now Netflix can coast on Suits, which has seen a bizarre surge in reputation on the platform in current months, and Love Is Blind, however ultimately the strike might by choking the content material pipeline depart the streamer with fewer choices to lure subscribers, or maintain them round. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Netflix would possibly increase costs after the actors strike ends. It’s attainable that the will increase introduced Wednesday are the worth hikes the Journal predicted, but when the price of Netflix goes up once more, the corporate should supply prospects extra to display it offers the identical worth.

To be honest, Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all recently raised their own streaming prices, so Netflix’s transfer is way from out of the unusual. Still, the extra streamers jack up their costs, the less providers, presumably, individuals will need to shell out for.

Netflix could also be changing mooching nieces, nephews, and ex-lovers into paying subscribers for now. But as Karl Bode noted recently in Techdirt, it’s attainable the corporate’s current income boosts “could be due to a popular new show or organic growth, and not necessarily due to Netflix’s scolding of password-sharing accounts.” The gambit is working up to now, however it could not work eternally.