We finally know how many Canadians subscribe to Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), and how much money the company earns in this country.
Silicon Valley-based Netflix has unveiled new financial details that reveal how many Canadians subscribe to the service and how much they pay the streaming giant. According to the filing, the company earned $593 million U.S. ($780 million) of revenue from Canada during the first nine months of 2019. That compares to Canadian revenues of $635 million U.S. ($835 million) for all of 2018 and $508 million U.S. ($668 million) in 2017.
The regulatory filing was made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The documents filed by the streaming giant also show 6.5 million paid subscribers in Canada as of September 30 this year, an increase of 200,000 paid accounts compared to the end of 2018.
Netflix has vowed to be more forthcoming with details of its business as it expands its presence globally. The company’s fuller disclosures could also assure investors of its competitiveness in the increasingly crowded streaming market.
However, the Canadian financial figures could draw attention to the fact that Netflix is not paying domestic revenue taxes within Canada. Some critics, including people within the federal government in Ottawa, have argued that Netflix is drawing viewers away from homegrown TV programming while injecting very little cultural content into the Canadian media landscape.
Under the current laws, foreign digital services, which include the streaming platform, also do not collect federal goods and service tax (GST) or a combined federal-provincial sales tax known as HST. One exception is Quebec where a sales tax was enacted earlier this year.
Netflix is facing increasing competition from newer streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple TV Plus (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Disney Plus (NYSE: DIS)