On Thursday, Netflix disclosed its fourth quarter results with an impressive addition of 29 million new paid members during the year, significantly higher than the 22 million viewers it added in 2017. This brought total paid members by the end of the year to 139 million, up 26% on a y-o-y basis.
Out of the total 29 million new members Netflix added in 2018, 8.84 million joined during the company's fourth quarter. This was well ahead of Netflix's guidance for 7.6 million paid member additions during the period.
Netflix's fourth-quarter revenue came in at $4.19 billion, up 27% from the year-ago quarter.
But its earnings per share declined from $0.41 in the fourth quarter of 2017 to $0.30, still higher than management's guidance for EPS of $0.23. The company's decline in EPS came as Netflix's operating margin narrowed from 7.5% in the year-ago quarter to 5.2%, reflecting significant content investments during the quarter.
Further, the company added that its cash burn is expected to in 2019 and then likely to drop off in years ahead. The company opined that its free cash flow deficit increased to $1.32 billion, compared with the deficit of $524 million a year ago. Netflix also said that it plans to bring its cash burn up to $3 billion for 2018.
But the company is hopeful that its fee cash flow will improve in the years ahead.