Netflix had already announced plans to spend between $7bn and $8bn on content in 2018, but there was a question about how the publicly-listed company planned to finance that investment in licensed shows and films, plus its own originals.
Now that question has been partially answered: yesterday Netflix raised $1.6bn of debt funding through a bond sale.
“The timing is perfect. They are coming off of very strong numbers. The market is completely open,” Invesco analyst Rahim Shad told the Financial Times, after the announcement.
Also yesterday, research firm Second Measure put out some new figures around Netflix’s position in the video-streaming market, based on an analysis of credit-card transactions.
“Currently in the United States, one in four people subscribe to Netflix, while only one in 14 are Hulu subscribers,” it claimed, referring to Netflix’s closest rival in the latter case.
“Despite Hulu’s recent gains, Netflix has still managed to attract slightly more new subscribers than Hulu so far this year. And perhaps more importantly, Netflix does a better job of holding on to its viewers. Over the past 12 months, Netflix retained members at a rate 18% higher than Hulu.”
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