🚀 Netflix Hits 325M Subscribers

More subscribers, more content, and a fast-growing ad business | Streaming in Short – W04

Jan 23, 2026

⏱️ This week’s streaming media news in 5 minutes.

📺 Netflix Reaches 325M Subscribers, Plans $20B Content Spend

👉 Netflix finished 2025 with more than 325 million subscribers worldwide and plans to spend about $20 billion on content in 2026.

📍 Netflix also shared its ad results for the first time: ads brought in more than $1.5 billion in 2025. In 2026, Netflix plans to grow ads fast and add more licensed movies and series, while still investing heavily in its own Originals.

💡 Netflix is getting bigger on all fronts: subscribers, content, and advertising, making it one of the strongest players in global TV.

📱 Microdrama Apps Drive Streaming Downloads Boom in 2025

👉 Video streaming app downloads jumped in 2025, mainly thanks to the rapid rise of microdrama and vertical-series apps.

📍 According to Sensor Tower, global video streaming downloads grew nearly 40% last year. Microdrama apps more than doubled their downloads, while traditional streaming apps saw a small decline.

💡 Growth is strong, but total viewing time is not rising much, meaning these apps are taking time away from traditional streaming, not adding new time.

📺 BBC Starts Making Shows for YouTube

What happened?

👉 The BBC announced a major new deal with YouTube to create original content made specifically for YouTube’s younger, digital-first audience.

Key details:

Content will include entertainment, documentaries, kids’ content, news, and sports, starting with the Winter Olympics.
BBC content will carry ads outside the UK, creating a new revenue stream.
The BBC plans to expand to up to 50 YouTube channels and invest in training the next generation of UK creators.

Why it matters?

🎯 Younger audiences spend more time on YouTube than on traditional TV. This move shows the BBC is shifting from using YouTube as a promo tool to treating it as a real distribution platform.

🏀 SPORTS: Smashi Sports Secures Exclusive Rights to Bahrain Basketball

Smashi Sports has acquired exclusive live streaming rights for the Zain Basketball Premier League, Bahrain’s top professional basketball competition.

This move supports the league’s growth and strengthens Smashi Sports position as a key platform for local and regional sports content.

🎮 ESPORTS: OSN Adds 7 New Esports Channels

OSN has expanded its TV lineup through a new partnership with eCLUTCH, adding seven dedicated esports channels to OSNtv.

This move helps OSN reach younger, Gen Z audiences and shows how pay-TV players in MENA are using gaming and esports to stay relevant beyond traditional TV content.

🎬 ENTERTAINMENT: Bilibili Anime Arrives in MENA via STARZPLAY

STARZPLAY has signed a new content deal with Bilibili to bring Chinese animation, known as donghua, to audiences across MENA.

This move strengthens STARZPLAY animation offer and targets younger, Gen Z audiences looking for new styles of storytelling beyond traditional series and movies.

📺 TECH: Sony and TCL Plan Home Entertainment Partnership

Sony and TCL have signed an agreement to explore a strategic partnership in home entertainment, focused on TVs and home audio products.

The goal is to build better smart TVs and home entertainment products for a world increasingly driven by streaming and connected viewing.

📺 FAST: Samsung TV Plus Passes 100M Monthly Users

Samsung TV Plus has crossed 100 million monthly active users worldwide, driven by strong growth in FAST channels and live events.

Available in 30 countries with more than 4,300 free channels, Samsung TV Plus shows how FAST is becoming a major driver of scale and engagement in the streaming ecosystem.

🇺🇸 MIAMI: Content Americas Wraps Up With Focus on Reinventing TV

Content Americas has just finished in Miami, bringing together global and regional players from the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic TV industries.

The event focused on how the TV business is changing, with strong attention on microdramas, shorter novelas, soccer stories linked to the 2026 World Cup, and new international co-productions.

🌊 Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, from Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg (Disney+, 8 episodes): After Camp Half-Blood’s protective border is breached, Percy Jackson embarks on an epic odyssey into the Sea of Monsters in search of his best friend Grover and the one thing that may save the camp — the legendary Golden Fleece. With help from Annabeth, Clarisse and his newfound cyclops half-brother Tyson, Percy’s survival becomes essential to stopping Luke, the Titan Kronos, and their impending plan to bring down Camp Half-Blood — and ultimately, Olympus.

🏝️ 22 years ago, Lost premiered on ABC. Created by J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber, the series dropped viewers onto a mysterious island where survival, fate, and unanswered questions shaped every episode. Lost became a global hit, changing how audiences watched TV, fueling online discussions week after week, and proving that serialized storytelling could build obsession, loyalty, and long-term engagement at scale.