Netflix (NFLX Quick QuoteNFLX - Free Report) is expanding its footprint in India through a recently inked creative partnership with acclaimed director Neeraj Pandey’s Friday Storytellers LLP, the digital content production arm of Friday Filmworks.

Netflix and Neeraj Pandey have already collaborated for Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, a cop-thriller that was one of India’s Top ten TV shows for more than five months and became one of the longest trending shows on Netflix in India. Khakee’s second season will be the first series to be released through the latest collaboration.    

Netflix’s focus on developing regional content has been a key catalyst in attracting new subscribers. In terms of Indian audience, apart from Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, it has released a plethora of new shows including Guns & Gulaabs, The Hunt for Veerappan, Choona, Kohrra, Lust Stories 2, Scoop, Rana Naidu, Class, Mission Majnu and more.

Moreover, Friday Night Plan, starring Babil Khan and Amrith Jayan, is set to release on Sep 1. It also announced the release of the mystery thriller, Do Patti, starring Kajol and Kriti Sanon in lead roles.

Globally, Netflix has been focused on expanding its original content portfolio, with a range of foreign-language content like Cigarette Girl (Indonesian), Baby Fever (Danish), King the Land (Korean), Sleeping Dog (German) and The Surrogacy (Mexican).

Netflix recently announced its first Korean-language animated film Lost in Starlight, in which popular K-drama stars Kim Tae-ri and Hong Kyung will lend their voices to the roles of astronaut Nan-young and musician Jay.

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The company is benefiting from strong viewership of foreign language-based films and shows amid stiff competition from its peers like Apple (AAPL Quick QuoteAAPL - Free Report) , Disney (DIS Quick QuoteDIS - Free Report) and Amazon (AMZN Quick QuoteAMZN - Free Report) .

In the second quarter of 2023, Netflix gained 5.89 million paid subscribers globally, thanks to a crackdown on password-sharing and the introduction of paid sharing in more than 100 countries in May.

Netflix’s 2023 Prospects Remain Bright

Netflix’s shares have risen 40.1% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s return of 9.3%. It also outperformed Apple and Disney but underperformed Amazon.

Shares of Apple and Amazon have returned 36.4% and 59.8%, respectively, on a year-to-date basis. Disney shares have declined 1.3%.

Netflix, which currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), is expected to benefit from its diversified content portfolio, which is attributable to heavy investments in the production and distribution of localized, foreign-language content. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Netflix now expects revenue growth to accelerate in the second half of 2023, driven by the launch of paid sharing. However, it anticipates foreign-exchange neutral average revenues per membership to be flat to slightly down year over year due to limited price increases over the past 12 months and immaterial revenues from advertising and paid-sharing.

Netflix scrapped the basic ad-free plan for new and rejoining members in Canada and is doing the same for U.K. and U.S.-based subscribers.

For the third quarter of 2023, Netflix now forecasts earnings of $3.52 per share, indicating an almost 10% increase from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

Total revenues are anticipated to be $8.52 billion, suggesting growth of 7% year over year and also on a forex-neutral basis.

The quarterly operating margin is projected to be 22.2% compared with 19.8% reported in the year-ago quarter.