Streaming Profitability Scorecard: Who's Making Money in 2026

Netflix generated more operating income in 2025 than the rest of the streaming industry combined — and it was not close. The company posted $13.3 billion in operating income on $45.2 billion in revenue, achieving a 29.5% operating margin that rivals the most profitable companies in tech. Meanwhile, Disney+ turned its first annual profit, Max posted strong earnings, and Peacock continued hemorrhaging money at a pace that would bankrupt most standalone businesses.

*Estimated from parent company filings. Streaming-specific revenue is not always separately reported.

Netflix's financial performance in 2025 was extraordinary by any measure. Revenue grew 17% year-over-year to $45.2 billion. Operating income nearly doubled from the prior year. The company guided for $43-44 billion in revenue for 2026 with further margin expansion.

Several factors drive Netflix's profitability advantage:

• Scale economics: Content costs are largely fixed (a show costs the same whether 1 million or 100 million people watch it), so each incremental subscriber drops almost entirely to the bottom line. At 325+ million subscribers, Netflix spreads its ~$20 billion content budget across a much larger base than any competitor.
• Advertising tier: Launched in November 2022, the $7.99 ad-supported tier now reaches 70+ million monthly active users globally. Advertising revenue contributed an estimated $2-3 billion in 2025 at premium CPMs.
• Password crackdown: The 50+ million subscribers added post-crackdown required zero incremental content spend — pure margin expansion.
• Content efficiency: Netflix's recommendation algorithm ensures that 80% of viewing comes from algorithmically surfaced content, maximizing the return on every dollar spent on content.

Disney's streaming turnaround is the most dramatic in the industry. From $4 billion in annual streaming losses at the peak in fiscal 2022 to $1.33 billion in operating income in fiscal 2025, the reversal was driven by three levers: aggressive price increases (Disney+ ad-free up 157% from launch), the ad-supported tier launched in December 2022, and content spending discipline.

The Disney+/Hulu integration — merging Hulu content into Disney+ for bundle subscribers — improved retention and increased engagement per subscriber. The Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle, launched in 2024, achieves an 80% three-month retention rate, dramatically reducing churn costs.

Disney's challenge: its streaming margins (roughly 6%) are a fraction of Netflix's (29.5%). Disney's content costs are inflated by high-budget franchise productions — a Marvel series costs $150-250 million per season versus $50-80 million for a typical Netflix drama. The franchise IP drives subscribers but compresses margins.

Peacock's cumulative losses have exceeded $10 billion since its 2020 launch — a staggering figure that parent company NBCUniversal (Comcast) continues to absorb. At 44 million paid subscribers and an estimated ARPU of roughly $7-8/month, Peacock generates approximately $4 billion in annual revenue against content and operating costs that consistently exceed $6 billion. The path to profitability requires either dramatic subscriber growth or significant cost cuts — likely both.

Apple TV+ does not disclose financial results, but analysts estimate annual content spending of $5-7 billion against subscriber revenue that may not exceed $3-4 billion. Apple views TV+ as an ecosystem retention tool — keeping users in the Apple hardware ecosystem — rather than a standalone profit center. By that metric, it may justify its cost even at a loss.

Paramount+ narrowed losses significantly through 2025 but remained unprofitable. The pending Paramount-WBD merger makes standalone Paramount+ financials largely irrelevant — the combined entity will operate under an entirely different cost structure.