Netflix’s Ad Revenue, NFL, WWE Deals Push Stock to Record Heights

Already the king of the streaming business, Netflix is reaching even greater heights—thanks in no small part to a booming advertising business.

The company said it boosted advertising commitments from its recent up-front negotiations by more than 150% compared to the 2023 upfront, with its new three-year deal for Christmas Day NFL games and 10-year agreement for live rights to WWE’s Raw both playing significant roles.

The disclosure, though not including any information about total sales volume or pricing, helped push Netflix stock to a record close of $698.54 per share Tuesday. The stock then retreated slightly in Wednesday trading, falling 0.2%. But Netflix shares have still grown more than 48% this year, and the new company high surpassed a prior mark set in November 2021.

“Over the last few months, we’ve hit great milestones for our ads business, including closing another successful upfront market, building and implementing an expanded programmatic suite, enhancing our global measurement capabilities, and securing impactful global ad campaigns,” said Amy Reinhard, Netflix president of advertising. 

A Market Force

Even before this latest news from Netflix, the company was operating from a position of unrivaled strength. Netflix reported 277.7 million subscribers as of the end of the second quarter, a figure far above any other market challenger. 

Within that top-line number, ads continue to take on much more importance for Netflix. In geographic markets where the platform is running ads—including the U.S.—those tiers of the service now account for 45% of all sign-ups, just 18 months after beginning that part of the business.

“To have the kind of primary revenue impact across a business that has been primarily subscription[-based] for a long time, that just takes some time. We’re scaling well through reach, through engagement, through growing inventory,” said Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann last month in an earnings call with analysts. 

“That represents an opportunity over a multiyear trajectory to have a big and increasing revenue and profit impact on the business. … We feel really good about our position, our ability to sustain healthy revenue and profit growth. Ads [are] kind of one more tool in our tool chest here.”