Netflix reports revenue rise, holds to “builders, not buyers” stance

Netflix has reported increases in revenue and net income for the second quarter of 2026, though the streamer’s forecast for the third quarter fell short of Wall Street targets, causing a dip in the company’s share price. 

Revenue for the second quarter was $12.56bn, up 13.4% on the second quarter of 2025. Net income was $3.4bn, or 80 cents a share, up 11% on the previous year’s quarter. The company said the increases were driven by membership growth, pricing and increased ad revenue. 

In the US and Canada, Netflix revenue was up 10% for the quarter to $5.43bn. In the EMEA region it was up 14% to $4.03bn. Latin America showed an increase of 21% to $1.58bn, and Asia Pacific produced a 16% increase to $1.51bn. 

The streaming giant also released a record high viewing figure for the first half of 2026, reporting that its members watched more than 97bn hours on the service, with non-English language content accounting for more than a third of the total. 

The service’s most viewed feature films for the first half were War Machine (with 147m views, a view being defined as hours viewed over the first 91 days of release divided by running time), The Rip (136m), Swapped (131m), KPop Demon Hunters (130m) and Apex (129m). 

The most viewed series were His & Hers (104m), season 4 of Bridgerton (100m), I Will Find You (64m), season five of Stranger Things (56m) and Run Away (50m). 

In a video presentation to answer questions from analysts, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was asked about the company’s stance on mergers and acquisitions (since it pulled out of the bidding for Warner Bros Discovery six months ago, Netflix has dismissed reports of an interest in Lionsgate). 

“As we’ve said, we’re primarily builders not buyers,” said Sarandos during the presentation. “And that remains the case today. So others will speculate about our intent, they have their own reasons for that. But our track record is clear, that we have a very high bar to do any big M&A.” 

In the same presentation, however, co-CEO Greg Peters said Netflix might look at partnerships similar to its recently launched bundling arrangement in France with TF1. 

Peters said that early results from the partnership “are very promising. So we don’t have anything new to announce today….but if we see additional deals that similarly serve our members, that work for our partner, that work for us, we’ll certainly consider them.”

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