Option Grant and Exercise Terms

Table of Contents upfront cash payments, partially offset by a $4,702 million or 19% increase in revenues. The payments for content assets increased $4,933 million, from $12,537 million to $17,469 million, or 39%, as compared to the increase in the amortization of content assets of $1,423 million, from $10,807 million to $12,230 million, or 13%. The increase in payments for content assets was primarily driven by delays in productions resulting from the pandemic that impacted the prior year, which resulted in the timing of certain production payments being shifted into the current year. In addition, we had increased payments associated with higher operating expenses, primarily related to increased headcount to support our continued improvements in our streaming service and our international expansion. Net cash used in investing activities increased $834 million, primarily due to acquisitions. Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities decreased $2,387 million primarily due to no debt issuances in the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to proceeds from the issuance of debt of $1,002 million, net of $8 million issuance costs in the year ended December 31, 2020, coupled with the repurchases of common stock for an aggregate amount of $600 million in the year ended December 31, 2021 and repayment upon maturity of the $500 million aggregate principal amount of our 5.375% Senior Notes in February 2021. Free cash flow was $5,275 million lower than net income for the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to $5,239 million of cash payments for content assets over amortization expense, $431 million of non-cash remeasurement gain on our euro-denominated debt and $8 million other non-favorable working capital differences, partially offset by $403 million of non-cash stock-based compensation expenses. Free cash flow was $840 million lower than net income for the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily due to $1,730 million of cash payments for content assets over amortization expense and $308 million in other non-favorable working capital differences, partially offset by $533 million of non-cash remeasurement loss on our euro-denominated debt, $415 million of non-cash stock-based compensation expenses, and a $250 million non-cash valuation allowance on the California R&D credit. Indemnifications The information set forth under Note 8 Guarantees - Indemnification Obligations in the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference. Critical Accounting Estimates The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported periods. The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has defined a company's critical accounting policies as the ones that are most important to the portrayal of a company's financial condition and results of operations, and which require a company to make its most difficult and subjective judgments. Based on this definition, we have identified the critical accounting policies and judgments addressed below. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates. Content We acquire, license and produce content, including original programming, in order to offer our members unlimited viewing of video entertainment. The content licenses are for a fixed fee and specific windows of availability. Payment terms for certain content licenses and the production of content require more upfront cash payments relative to the amortization expense. Payments for content, including additions to content assets and the changes in related liabilities, are classified within "Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities" on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. We recognize content assets (licensed and produced) as "Content assets, net" on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. For licensed content, we capitalize the fee per title and record a corresponding liability at the gross amount of the liability when the license period begins, the cost of the title is known and the title is accepted and available for streaming. For produced content, we capitalize costs associated with the production, including development cost, direct costs and production overhead. Participations and residuals are expensed in line with the amortization of production costs. Based on factors including historical and estimated viewing patterns, we amortize the content assets (licensed and produced) in "Cost of revenues" on the Consolidated Statements of Operations over the shorter of each title's contractual window of availability or estimated period of use or ten years, beginning with the month of first availability. The amortization is on an accelerated basis, as we typically expect more upfront viewing, and film amortization is more accelerated than TV 27

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