Netflix has quietly acknowledged that last year's entertainment writer and actor strikes made an impact on the number of shows and films it was able to put out last year. But it's also promising that the slump in releases is almost over.
In today's Q3 earnings release, the shareholder letter from the company included the line, "Our 2024 programming has been patchier than normal due to last year’s strikes. But our volume has picked up again and we’re excited for what’s ahead."
The strikes being referred to are last year's actions by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), where both groups undertook a work stoppage to push for better terms in their respective contracts. Though the strikes were understook separately, the two groups rallied together around issues such as limitations around use of AI to replace their respective work, and issues around pay.
The two strikes lasted roughly five months, meaning that for that duration no writing or acting work on shows or film could be done by guild members. It makes sense then that a five-month gap where numerous shows and films couldn't proceed with production, filming, or other work would impact things somewhere down the pipeline, but Netflix is now claiming it's weathered this period and is ready to be back in action. In Q4, it's planning for the release of Squid Game season 2, Love is Blind season 7, and various other releases.
Our 2024 programming has been patchier than normal due to last year’s strikes. But our volume has picked up again and we’re excited for what’s ahead
Though SAG-AFTRA's film and TV actors are back to work, the guild's video game actors remain on a strike which began in July and which also primarily concerns protections against AI encroachment.
Update 2:08pm PT: On the earnings call, CEO Ted Sarandos offered further context on exactly how the strikes impacted Netflix's output:
In the first half of this year, our line-up was much lumpier than we've liked, and that's primarily because of the work stoppage. It did hit UCAN [US and Canada] the hardest, but there were some effects of that felt in production around the world. We're moving closer and closer to a more normalized output schedule now, series are more on track than film, but neither are fully fully recovered. We've had returning favorites like Bridgerton that managed to get into the first half of the year, but many of our other high-profile returning hits like Cobra Kai, Emily in Paris, Outer Banks, and even our new shows like Perfect Couple and Nobody Wants This were scheduled for much earlier in the year and got kind of delayed into Q3, and that delay was again because of the strike and its impact on the UCAN slate. By the end of Q3, a lot more normalized as you see…our film slate obviously was impacted as well, and it's getting back to normal…and in 2025, we're largely back to normal.
Original story continues: Elsewhere in its earnings, Netflix reported it gained 5.1 million new subscribers in the quarter for a total of 282.72 million subscribers. The company plans to stop reporting subscriber numbers after this year, meaning next quarter's earnings will be the last time we get a subscriber number from Netflix.
The company also reported revenue of $9.8 million for the quarter, up 15% year-over-year. It's expecting revenue growth of 15% year-over-year for the full year as well as for the upcoming Q4, and it projects its Q4 subscriber growth will be higher than Q3's.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.