is lucas shaw who covers the company for us. lucas, pull out the subscriber -- highlights for us. the forecast for subscriber is beating estimates but the earnings forecast is light. lucas: the thing would netflix is that investors always look at this a cyber number -- subscriber number. by and large, the revenue story for netflix has been pretty positive because they are boosting the amount of revenue they get for subscriber means each subscriber they sign-up should be net positive for them. they are on pace to add 29 million customers this year. i went into this quarter thinking it was possible that they would report a decline in subscribers. instead, they post their biggest you're ever by about 5 million. at a certain point, you run out of superlatives to talk about the growth of this company. emily: andre, what do you believe is driving this growth? is it the new netflix original shows? the do not believe it is new netflix original content at all. i think there is a certain part of the success of netflix that can be attributed now over the last few quarters to a rising tide fl

let's bring in lucas shaw. e was not just subscriber numbers themselves, but the idea of rising competition. some of these numbers seem like they would put fears to rest. lucas: netflix as almost 7 million in the quarter and is on pace for its biggest year yet. they have now done this year after year. last year, they added between 23 and 24 million customers. this year, they are on pace to 29 million. that is pretty staggering in its 20th year of existence to be setting this much growth. they say they welcome people to come and play with us in this paid web tv where they are so far ahead of everyone else. joe: what stood out to you the most? investors are blown away. when you look at the big picture, what strikes you about this business right now? lucas: the forecast for the fourth quarter was the one that surprised me because it is the only time i've ever seen a nine in this of scrub edition -- subscriber addition for them. the more i dig into international numbers, even if they missed their forecast this year,

lucas shaw is here to discuss with us. can they handle it? they keep growing, they can. they seem to borrow money every six to 12 months now because of how much they are investing in the original programming, which then attracts customers, boosts subscriber totals and mix wall theyt happy, which is how raise money. emily: how do they do that? is it because of how much they spend? >> netflix has managed to account in a way that makes it seem that they are spending less money than they are. on a balance sheet statement, they will say they spent about $7 billion so far this year and they will spend even more by the end. on a cash basis, there are spending a few billion dollars more than that, which is how the -- which is why they need to keep raising money. they can amortize over time and prefer it in a couple of years. emily: that said, sales are still growing 30 or so percent per year. do they need to do this or is it just a strategy. reporter: i think they need to do it if they want to keep increasing. their whole strategy is to keep increasi

lucas shaw sets the scene. flix put out the first couple of shots last year, signing chandra rimes and producer ryan murphy, the producers of gray's anatomy and american horror story. two of the most prestigious show runners in hollywood. down so muchgh money and got so much -- many headlines for those deals, it sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry and forced other tv studios to reassess how they are making deals with high-end talent. so we started to see over the last few months some of the other studios adjust the types of deals they offer and how they are approaching their talent. the most notable example being a producer. with that produces 15 shows on the air right now, the most of anybody ever. >> you are talking about big money, 240 million dollars for ryan murphy, chandra arrive was about $150 million. do they have a preference or will they go where they get the big bucks? lucas: it depends on who the person is. in the case of chandra rimes, she was pretty unhappy at disney and abc. disney