Netflix is winning the streaming wars. Now it’s making it clear it wants to win just about everything else.
The world’s largest streamer reported 18% year-over-year revenue growth and a jump in subscribers Tuesday as it signals a new phase of ambition, one that stretches from movie theaters and live sports to advertising and beyond. It's also pushing ahead with a high-stakes bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios and streaming assets.
Netflix confirmed Tuesday that it has amended its bid for Warner Bros. and HBO to an all-cash offer as rival Paramount Skydance presses its own bid for the entire company.
"We’re working really hard to close the acquisition of Warner Bros. Studios and HBO, which we see as a strategic accelerant," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the company's earnings call Tuesday afternoon.
Sarandos said he is confident the deal will clear regulatory hurdles and expand competition, calling it “pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, pro-creator and pro-growth.”
The revised deal structure is expected to streamline the approval process, allowing Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to vote on the transaction as early as April.
The timing underscores a shift across the broader media landscape as consolidation accelerates and entertainment companies compete fiercely for viewers’ time.
Streaming captured a record 47.5% of total television viewing in December, according to the media analytics company Nielsen, the highest share ever recorded. YouTube remained the single largest streaming platform by viewing time, underscoring how Netflix’s biggest competition increasingly extends beyond traditional media rivals.
"YouTube has full-length films, new episodes of scripted and unscripted TV shows. They have NFL football games. They have the Oscars. They are TV,” Sarandos said on the call. “So we all compete with them in every dimension — for talent, for ad dollars, for subscription dollars and for attention.”
Netflix, however, operates at a scale unmatched by its subscription-based streaming peers. A direct-to-consumer streaming platform unburdened by struggling linear television networks or sprawling theme park and theatrical businesses, the company focused entirely on capturing viewers and built an early lead in streaming.
As the attention economy grew more crowded, Netflix’s position only strengthened.
Netflix has largely stopped reporting subscriber totals, saying it would only update the figure when hitting key milestones. In its fourth quarter earnings report, however, the company said it crossed 325 million paid memberships. That’s more than double the size of Disney+.
Instead of focusing on sign-ups, Netflix has shifted attention to how much money the business brings in and how people actually use the platform.
That engagement push has included new ways to keep viewers actively involved, with Netflix announcing a real-time voting feature that will debut during select live programs beginning Tuesday. Netflix also branched out into party games last year, another offering that features interactivity.
In a recent client note, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth said how viewers interact with newer parts of Netflix’s business — including original content, live and sports programming, and advertising — is now a clearer measure of the company’s success as it stretches beyond the traditional streaming model.
But that expanding ambition, which now includes the potential takeover of parts of Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, comes with trade-offs, some analysts say.
“Netflix’s simplicity was its superpower,” Matthew Dolgin, media analyst at the investment research company Morningstar, told NBC News. He said the risk isn’t that Netflix loses its dominance in streaming, but that it complicates a model that succeeded precisely because of its focus.
It’s a tension point increasingly evident in the company’s own rhetoric.
“I want to win the opening weekend,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday, a nod at its pursuit for Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios assets. “I want to win the box office.”
The comments marked a sharp departure for a company that once dismissed theaters as unnecessary in the streaming age. Then again, Netflix has made a habit of reversing course. It long positioned itself as “better builders than buyers,” once avoided live sports, embraced password sharing before cracking down on it, and eventually reintroduced advertising — a staple of the old cable bundle — as streaming economics tightened.
But many of those boosts are now fading, making this earnings report particularly closely watched.
“This quarter and this earnings call is one I’ve had circled on my calendar for much of 2025,” Dolgin said. Recent momentum, he said, was fueled by moves that are hard to repeat, including price increases, the password-sharing crackdown, and the rollout of cheaper, ad-supported plans.
“Those tailwinds will be all gone as of the end of January of this year,” he said.
To that point, Netflix signaled revenue growth may slow in the year ahead, forecasting an increase of 12% to 14%, below the roughly 15% pace it had previously targeted. The stock fell over 5% in after hours trading.
Last spring, The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix has set internal goals of doubling revenue and reaching a $1 trillion market valuation by the end of the decade. As of Tuesday's market close, the company's valuation stood at just under $370 billion.
“Netflix is going to remain the dominant streaming platform no matter what,” Dolgin said. The bigger question, though, is what comes next for a company that has already reached unprecedented scale, particularly after Netflix outlined how aggressively it wants the business to keep expanding.
That puts added weight on what executives signal about the road ahead, especially as Netflix searches for its next chapter beyond streaming alone.
