As Netflix Tries to Reset Narrative for Investors, Live Programming Could Play ‘Starring Role’

The sky isn’t falling for Netflix — but the streaming giant needs to convince investors it has a workable plan to sustain double-digit revenue and earnings growth ahead.

The company on Thursday posted Q2 results in line with Wall Street expectations, but Q3 revenue guidance was below expectations. That fueled fears that on a per-user basis, Netflix’s engagement is decelerating, indicating headwinds for subscription and ad revenue growth. Its stock price tumbled to an 18-month low.

Not helping soothe concerns: Netflix said that, starting in 2027, it will release its huge viewing-metrics reports yearly instead of every six months. Certainly some investors were left wondering: What is Netflix trying to hide? Note that this comes after Netflix last year stopped reporting quarterly subscriber numbers as those have started to level off.

To hear Netflix tell it, the fears are overblown. For one thing, the company said it’s changing to a once-per-year data dump to “keep the focus on our primary financial metrics — revenue and operating profit.”

Just raw viewing numbers don’t tell the whole story, according to Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters. “There is not a linear relationship between view hours and revenue and profit because all hours are not created equal,” he said on the Q2 call.

According to Netflix, live programming punches above its weight for the streamer relative to viewing time. Netflix said that in 2026, live programming is expected to account for just over 5% of its content spend — roughly $1 billion of its $20 billion projected content spend — but only about 1% of view hours. However, live event programming accounted for six of the top 10 new member sign-up days over the last five years (and, Netflix noted, it only began streaming live events since 2023). “So live events do a lot of lifting for us for [subscriber] acquisition,” said Peters. “They’re good for monetization. They drive ad revenue, fandom.”

Going forward for Netflix, “Live content should play a starring role, as it is over-delivering on effectiveness in driving the business even with lower total viewing hours without the repeat nature of the content,” MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a research note Friday.

Live programming also plays a big part in Netflix’s burgeoning ads business. The company said 2026 U.S. upfront negotiations are in “advanced stages, and we expect commitments to close in the next few weeks.” Per Netflix, there has been strong interest in its live programming lineup, including the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, an expanded NFL slate (with five games this coming season, up from two), WWE and MLB events.

Compared with some of Netflix’s other bets, live events have been a bright spot. Games, which it introduced in late 2021, haven’t moved the needle. And while it’s relatively early in the company’s video-podcast push, the viewing numbers evidently were disappointing enough that Netflix didn’t break out podcast titles in the first-half 2026 viewing report.

Meanwhile, Netflix also can “combat the bearish sentiment” among investors in other ways that wouldn’t require huge investments, according to Fishman. Those include TV licensing partnerships (such as the one it has with TF1 in France) and potential bundles with other streaming services (e.g., NBCUniversal’s Peacock); the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Netflix is looking at both of those areas. Netflix could also launch a streaming “channel store” or a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) tier as “on ramp” to its subscription biz, per Fishman.

What about a FAST move? Asked about that on the earning interview, Peters said the company is “going to continue to consider” a free ad-supported service “but we have no near-term plans to launch something.” He noted that a “free offering could make sense in some markets, but we have to be thoughtful about cannibalization of paid tiers” — and, he pointed out, “having an effective scaled ads business” is “clearly an important enabling factor to make those economics work.”

Pictured above: Audrey Nuna, Ejae and Rei Ami — the real-life Huntr/x singers from Netflix’s “K-Pop Demon Hunters” — with Snoop Dogg during “Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party” at U.S. Bank Stadium on Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2025, in Minneapolis during the Vikings-Lions game.