Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers in Q4 2023, its biggest gain in a year-end quarter, and the streamer continues to try to broaden its demographic reach by investing in new content, including a new deal for live WWE wrestling matches. The expansion into live-streaming provides an opportunity to draw regular, appointment viewers, something advertisers like. “No entertainment company has ever tried to program at this scale, and for so many tastes and cultures,” Netflix wrote in a shareholder letter that says it plans to spend up to $17 billion on content in 2024.

“It takes a page from the TV networks Netflix has started to replace as the streamer works to become the main source of households’ entertainment,” The Wall Street Journal observed, while The Verge quips that between “Suits,” old movies and WWE, “Netflix is turning into cable.”

One way it is not like cable, Netflix generated $8.8 billion in revenue for Q4. No cable network comes close. ESPN, a top earner, had about $12 billion in revenue for the full-year 2023. Netflix’s 12 month revenue for the period ending December 31 was $33.72 billion. Free cash flow for the year was $6.9 billion.

Net profit for the final quarter rose to $938 million, the company detailed in its financial statement.

CNBC valued the 10-year WWE deal between Netflix and TKO Group Holdings at about $5 billion, explaining the streamer “will air WWE’s flagship program ‘Raw’ starting next year, in Netflix’s first major foray into live sports.”

NBCUniversal’s USA Network currently has the U.S. rights to “Raw,” in a five-year deal WSJ says is “valued at more than $1.3 billion that doesn’t include international rights.”

In addition to exclusive U.S. rights starting next January, the Netflix deal will see the streamer offering the show in Canada, Latin America and the UK, potentially adding more territories “as existing rights deals expire,” says WSJ.

In a further move to drive cost-conscious subscribers to its ad-supported tier, Netflix says it’s retiring the ad-free Basic subscription that costs $11.99 per month. Though the streamer previously announced it wouldn’t allow new customers to join that plan, it now says it will do away with it entirely, starting in Q2, in Canada and the UK, The Verge reports.

“Netflix launched its ad tier, which costs $6.99 in the U.S., in late 2022, and the plan has started to gain traction after a slow start,” writes WSJ, adding that “Netflix said the ad tier accounts for 40 percent of all sign ups in markets where the plan is available.” According to Netflix, the ad tier now has 23 million global monthly active users, an increase from 15 million at the end of September.

Across all plans, Netflix ended the quarter with 260.28 million global subscribers. That’s almost 13 percent growth, attributed in part to a crackdown on password sharing.