Three things stand out. Firstly, the nominal growth in turnover of 3.7% compared to the first quarter of last year, positive on paper but below inflation in reality; in constant dollars, the activity seems to have reached a plateau, and this for two years now.

Secondly, a modest increase in subscribers, with only two million additional paying members since the previous quarter; however, Netflix has launched its anti-sharing initiatives in a few markets - not yet in the US though. So the impact of these measures seems to have been limited, although it was expected.

Third, cash profit, or free cash flow, reached $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023 - as much as in the four quarters of the previous year combined. The source of this improvement is not hard to find: Netflix has simply cut back on new content investments, as investors were rightly demanding.

Is this a "quick fix" or a genuine change of direction? Perhaps a bit of both. The management is resuming investments as of the second quarter. It is now promising $3.5 billion of free cash flow for the year: that is still forty-three times the current market capitalization of $150 billion.

To what extent will this savings program impact the acquisition of new subscribers in the face of the rise of the major studios in the streaming market? This is a question that can be asked. Already, some are lamenting that Netflix is slipping into syrupy sitcoms with low production costs, leaving the big blockbusters to its rivals.

The streaming industry, emerging hungover after a few years of euphoria, is streamlining its approach as the competitive landscape stabilizes: Disney is raising its prices; Paramount is making it clear it won't be able to go it alone; Warner Bros is undergoing a severe slimming down and unifying its offerings; when Netflix is scaling back its once wild content production ambitions.

None of these players has a choice - they all have to adapt to the new online consumption patterns of their users - but there is still a long way to go before they can recoup the colossal content investments needed to acquire and retain subscribers.

One piece of good news for Netflix, however, is that its debt rating has been revised to investment grade by Moody's - for such a capital-intensive business, a definite plus in a context of rising interest rates.