📺 Stream kings

Netflix's crackdown paid off again

View in Browser Tonight: Netflix's big subscriber bet is paying off. Plus: Some commentators are missing the point of the Caitlin Clark salary scandal. Let's get into it.   Also, a quick reminder: Nightcap is taking a spring break next week. We'll be back on Monday, April 29.    By Allison Morrow Dow 37,775.38 0.06% S&P 500 5,011.12 0.22% NASDAQ 15,601.50 0.52% Last updated April 18 at 7:43 PM ET 🍿 STILL WATCHING Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images   Netflix always knew we were sharing one another's logins, and for years, it gave us a pass. The point for the company was to grow and grow and get as many people as possible hooked on its service. It could figure out the money part later.    Last year, Netflix finally had to call time on the freeloading. It was one thing to use your roommate's cousin's password to watch House of Cards in your 20s, but Netflix was betting it could now cajole you (and millions of others) to pony up your own credit card.   It was a risky move for Netflix because the company, while dominant in the industry, really only does, like, one thing, and that's streaming. Rivals like Apple and Disney and Amazon have entire empires of other stuff that can make them money, which is how they can all afford to keep hemorrhaging cash on their unprofitable streaming businesses.    Today, however, Netflix revealed just how lucrative the password crackdown has been.    See here: In its first-quarter earnings Thursday, Netflix revealed that it added more than 9 million subscribers — far more than analysts expected — bringing its total to a record of nearly 270 million, my colleague Samantha Delouya reports.    It wasn't quite a repeat of Netflix's blockbuster fourth quarter last year, when it added 13 million subscribers, but it's still nothing to sneeze at. The company also reported $9.37 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $5.28 for the first quarter, beating Wall Street's estimates, according to FactSet.   Netflix shares, which have gone up 30% this year, fell in after-hours trading, likely because the company said future subscriber gains would be lower.   Big picture: It's an odd moment for Netflix, which owes much of its success to its old, well-established business model. But Wall Street has an insatiable demand for limitless growth, and Netflix has recently moved to reinvent itself and juice profits.   Netflix saw early success with its original programming, but lately it's been moving into live sports, video games, and licensing deals to get other providers' content onto its app. Like, the entire catalog of Sex and the City, and Seinfeld.   "They're getting tons of viewership on both original content and licensed content," Alicia Reese, an equity analyst who covers Netflix for Wedbush Securities, said. "It's productive and it's cheaper for them."   Reese called it a "winning formula."   Read Samantha's full report here. NUMBER OF THE DAY 7.1% Ouch.   There wasn't a lot of great news for homebuyers this week, as mortgage rates soared, crossing the psychologically significant 7% threshold for the first time this year. Meanwhile, home sales fell 4.3% in March — their biggest monthly drop in a year.    With prices near record highs and inventory near record lows — and no sign that mortgage rates are dropping anytime soon — it's not hard to imagine why buyers may be shying away. My colleague Bryan Mena has more. 🏀 MONEY MOVES Caitlin Clark, the first pick in the WNBA draft this week, will make a $76,535 salary this year.   The top NBA pick, meanwhile, will make 137 times more — about $10.5 million.   That side-by-side comparison of women's and men's pro basketball salaries is getting a lot of attention this week, and rightly stirring up some anger over the huge gap, my colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn reports.   And before you get all "but the WNBA doesn't draw the same crowds" on me, let's just get this out of the way: No one is asking for WNBA players to make the same as NBA players. At least, not right now.   The NBA is 50 years older than the WNBA, has more than double the number of teams and games in a season, and brings in $10 billion a year in revenue, compared with a reported $200 million for the WNBA.   The inequity lies in the way the two leagues structure their revenue shares.    See here: Players receive around 10% of the WNBA's overall revenue, while the NBA's collective bargaining agreement gives players 50% of revenue, according to David Berri, a professor of economics at Southern Utah University.   The WNBA must hit a certain revenue threshold annually before any revenue-sharing agreements kick in.   "That's a league choice," Berri said. "They don't have to do it that way."   If the WNBA were to pay 50% of its revenue to players, top players would earn more than $3 million in salary, he said.   Instead, the WNBA's biggest stars top out at $235,000 under their current contract.   What's next? The Caitlin Clark phenomenon is just one factor boosting women's basketball right now.   The WNBA is coming off its most-watched regular season in 21 years, and attendance at games last season hit its highest level in 13 years. The league is negotiating new media rights that are expected to bring in millions of dollars of additional revenue.   With so much public enthusiasm for the league's rising stars, the women's union is expected to drive a hard bargain when it begins negotiating for a new agreement after the 2025 season.   "If we have games that are doing 18 million viewers, all right, let's lift things up a little bit more," Breanna Stewart, the New York Liberty power forward and vice president of the players' union, recently told GQ. "Salaries will go up, benefits will go up." WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 🚫 Google fired more than two dozen employees who protested this week against the company's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.   📰 The judge in Donald Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan scolded the press for reporting information that could potentially identify jurors.   📱 Apple is planning to buy more components from Vietnam, underscoring a trend among global tech firms to look beyond China to secure their supply chains, cut costs and open up new markets. ✏️ POST OF THE DAY Today's movers BNTC 6.82 42.08% Benitec Biopharma Inc HOLO 2.95 31.70% MicroCloud Hologram Inc. MRIN 3.15 30.71% Marin Software, Inc. WISA 5.89 36.32% WiSA Technologies, Inc. MRNO 7.22 31.24% Murano Global Investments PLC EDBL 4.58 31.23% Edible Garden AG , Inc. Last updated April 18 at 4:00 PM ET   What did you think of today's newsletter? Click here to send us feedback   You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for CNN Business Nightcap. 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