The Netflix logo is seen on an office building in Los Angeles, California on February 5, 2026.
Michael Yanow | Nuphoto | Getty Images
Netflix kicks off earnings season for media companies on Thursday with a quarterly report that Wall Street hopes will give more updates on the company’s path forward after walking away from its proposed deal for Discovery of Warner Bros..
Here is Netflix’s expected performance when it reports its results for the first quarter of 2026, according to estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 76 cents estimated
- Income: $12.18 billion estimated
Last quarter, Netflix management focused much of its investor earnings conference on its interest in WBD’s streaming and movie assets, as well as progress in its advertising business.
However, just weeks after the January earnings update, Netflix abandoned its pursuit of WBD after Paramount Skydance offer a superior offer for the entire WBD.
“Earnings-wise, Netflix is in a very different place than many expected just a month and a half ago. We were supposed to be talking about the company’s progress toward closing the Warner Bros. deal,” said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester. “Instead, the question now is how Netflix competes in a streaming market that risks becoming more crowded at the top.”
Although Netflix stock has made considerable gains since it pulled out of its WBD deal – up more than 25% – it has raised questions about the path forward for the streaming giant.
By walking away from the WBD acquisition, Netflix “avoided a substantial increase in debt, extensive regulatory scrutiny and a lengthy and complex integration process,” according to a Deutsche Bank research note released Monday.
The note adds that this will allow Wall Street to once again focus on Netflix engagement, pricing and advertising.
Outside of the WBD deal and Netflix’s potential aspirations in the broader media landscape, Wall Street’s attention has most often been on the advertising sector, which has made considerable gains since its late 2022 launch.
In January, Netflix management said the cheaper, ad-supported option was catching on after being “slower to get going” during its first years on the market. Netflix reported more than $1.5 billion in ad revenue in 2025, or about 3% of its total revenue for the full year, which it expects to double this year.
For years, Wall Street has focused on growing streaming platform subscribers. However, since Netflix announced its first subscriber loss in 10 years in 2022, investors have turned their attention to profitability. In response, media companies are focusing less on publishing subscriber count information and more on other business initiatives, such as advertising and raising prices.
Netflix raised prices again in late March, which analysts say will contribute to overall revenue growth in 2026. The company provided a subscriber update in January, when it said it reached 325 million paying customers worldwide, another milestone since its last release of membership numbers the previous year.
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