The streaming service added more subscribers than it previously projected
.Netflix now possesses more than 50 million subscribers, the company said Monday in its second quarter earnings release. The company’s earnings and revenue were about in-line with analyst expectations, as it reported revenue of $1.34 billion (analysts said $1.33) and earnings per share of $1.15 (analysts said $1.16).
The main focus will be on the subscriber numbers, since that is how Netflix can continue to grow. Netflix forecast it would add 1.46 million customers in the quarter, but it added 1.69 million instead.
The bulk of those subscribers – 36 million of them — live in the United States. Netflix credited its “ever-improving content offering,” which is its way of praising its original series.
The second season of “Orange is the New Black” debuted on the service in this latest quarter, and the show racked up 12 Emmy nominations a couple months later. Though subscriber numbers grew at their slowest pace since the same quarter a year ago, the numbers looked better overseas, where Netflix added 1.12 million customers. Its overseas subscriber base has grown 78 percent year over year.
“Our international contribution loss of ($15.3) million has been rapidly approaching contribution
profitability as we see improvements across all existing markets,” CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said in a letter to shareholders. “Our broad success from Argentina to
Finland has convinced us to further invest aggressively in global expansion.”
That expansion will cost the company some money, so international will not be profitable in the next quarter. It may take even longer, since Netflix is addressing just one-third of global broadband households.
While Netflix is larger than HBO in the United States, HBO has far more viewers overseas. Netflix is eager to change that.
