• Netflix posted record-setting earnings and revenue for the second quarter on Thursday.
• The streamer also raised its revenue forecast for the year.
• Analysts are watching the platform's plans to scale through live sports and TV and grow its ads business.

Netflix posted record-setting revenue and earnings for the second quarter, and signaled there's more growth on the horizon.

The streaming giant's revenue rose 15.9% year over year to $11.08 billion, and earnings grew 47% to $7.19 per share. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected quarterly revenue of $11.06 billion and earnings of $7.09 per share.

The company also raised its revenue forecast for 2025 to $44.8 billion to $45.2 billion, in part because of its momentum growing subscribers and its advertising business.

Netflix shares were relatively flat in after-hours trading following the earnings release on Thursday.

Wall Street has long crowned Netflix as the streaming king. The streamer's latest win comes on the heels of releases like "Squid Game," which released its third and final season in late June. Netflix said the season was its sixth biggest ever with 122 million views.

Netflix stopped reporting specific subscriber figures last quarter, which makes it difficult to gauge the platform's user growth.

But estimates from third-party data firm Antenna suggest Netflix's gross monthly subscriber additions in the US have fallen from their peak.

Analysts are focused on how the platform continues to scale through live sports and TV, as well as creator-driven partnerships.

So far, Netflix has announced a return of a Christmas Day NFL game, a September fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, and a forthcoming reboot of the late-80s hit "Star Search," among other live programming.

The live content serves dual purposes: helping Netflix continue to grow its subscription base and providing ample opportunities for its budding advertising business.

Netflix expects its advertising revenue to double this year, as executives previously outlined on the first-quarter earnings call. The company also plans to introduce interactive ads in the second half of 2025, co-CEO Greg Peters said on Thursday's earnings call.

Nearly half of new Netflix subscribers in the US chose the ad tier from January to May, according to Antenna data.

At $8 a month, Netflix's ad plan is starting to look like a bargain. It's the same as Paramount+'s ad tier and cheaper than comparable plans from Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max. The ad version of Amazon Prime Video costs $15 a month. And Peacock is planning to raise the price of its ad plan to $11 a month, Vulture reported on Thursday.

"We also think that we are an incredible entertainment value — not only compared to traditional entertainment, but if you think about other streaming competitors," Peters said.

Netflix said it also wants to use artificial intelligence to help create ads, content, and content recommendations.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts that "The Eternaut," an Argentine sci-fi show, has the first generative AI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix show or movie. The series used generative AI for a sequence where a building collapsed in Buenos Aires.

"That VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with visual, traditional VFX tools and workflows," Sarandos said on the earnings call. "Also, the cost of it would just wouldn't have been feasible for a show in that budget."

• Warner Bros. Discovery — the brainchild of media mogul David Zaslav — is splitting up.
• Wall Street had long questioned the wisdom of WBD, and Zaslav now seems to agree.
• While this spinoff was predictable, it sparks questions for other media companies.

The ill-fated marriage between Warner Bros. and Discovery is heading for divorce — and Wall Street is cheering.

Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday announced plans to split its declining TV networks from its growing streaming and studios business. This spinoff proposal comes three years after WBD's inception. If all goes well, the spinoff will happen in mid-2026.

WBD CEO David Zaslav will oversee the sexier streaming part, while CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels — known for delivering "synergies" — will be in charge of the shrinking networks. WBD isn't alone, as Comcast is also splitting from most of its cable assets.

By largely undoing the merger, Zaslav is acknowledging something Wall Street has been saying for a while: WBD's assets are better off apart.

WBD shares were up as much as 13% in early trading. (However, Comcast's stock also popped when its spinoff was announced last fall, and has since fallen more than 20%.)

"The decision to separate Warner Bros. Discovery reflects our belief that each company can now go further and faster apart than they can together," Zaslav said on a call with investors about the spinoff.

When asked for comment, a WBD spokesperson referred Business Insider to comments made by executives on the investor call.

Better late than never

Many media analysts were initially excited when Zaslav orchestrated the deal to form WBD. But they soon soured on the media conglomerate as cord-cutting accelerated and WBD's streamer — Max/HBO Max — missed lofty expectations and failed to truly challenge the likes of Netflix.

Zaslav and company took note. WBD executives telegraphed this spinoff by reorganizing the business late last year, separating the TV networks from its studios and streaming businesses.

Wall Street was pleased by this potential split, which was the key catalyst for WBD's stock's 16% rally in the past month, UBS media analyst John Hodulik told BI last week.

Others agreed.

"Investor excitement for a Warner Bros. Discovery spin-off of its Global Linear Networks is building by the day," Lightshed analysts led by Rich Greenfield wrote last week.

Bank of America's Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote in an early-June note that a "spin of studios and streaming could be the best way to unlock the significant unrecognized value of the company."

So far, it seems like she's right.

A sign of the times?

WBD's announcement will likely spark more speculation about future reordering of the media and entertainment landscape.

It's long been the expectation among industry insiders that WBD's spun-off linear networks would combine with others, potentially Versant, the linear assets that Comcast is spinning off. Other ideas that have been floated in media circles are a combination with Paramount — assuming its Skydance deal ever gets approved — or with Fox's linear assets.

Reordering is also afoot across the advertising industry. Two giant holding companies, Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group, are in the process of combining. Their peer WPP is replacing its CEO, Mark Read.

One wild card in the mix with WBD is CNN, with President Donald Trump's general hostility to deals involving media companies.

Longtime ad industry analyst Brian Wieser remarked that the news network could be an asset and a liability, given its history and future ability to attract the ire of Trump, who has been aggressive in targeting the mainstream media.

Wieser wrote on Monday that CNN would "probably benefit" from being separated from all of WBD's other assets as it's "the one part of WBD that could tie up other parts of this transaction so long as any government approvals are required to facilitate its completion."

Another question is the fate of WBD's studio business, which has been dragged down. On a call Monday announcing the separation, Zaslav emphasized that the movie business was harder to project than TV. But he said that by leaning into well-known IP, he saw WBD's studios arm becoming a $3 billion business.

The separation also could put WBD's studios business in play, Bernstein's Lauren Yoon said.

The companies that could ingest such a business include Amazon, Disney, Netflix, and Comcast. However, most of the tech companies haven't historically been big acquirers, and the timing isn't ideal.

"No tech companies want to give the government any reason to be in their business," said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investments.

Also, expect Bob Iger to field new questions about what's ahead for Disney's linear and cable networks. He once floated the idea of selling them, though he then retreated from the idea.

Disney's line at the time was that it wouldn't get the price it wanted if it sold those properties and that it'd be too complex to separate them from the rest of the company. Iger and Trump have also sparred in the past, and Disney could look to avoid deals that need government approval.