Netflix Just Posted A Record Subscriber Gain for the First Quarter

It doesn’t look like Netflix is too phased by Disney’s recent announcement about its streaming service Disney+.

The streaming giant just released its subscriber numbers for the first quarter and this included a record for subscriber growth.

CEO Reed Hastings commented on the quarter during the earnings call and said, “We’re a mix of great innovator that people love us for trying new things. That’s both in terms of on-demand and it’s creatively with a difference series that we’re doing and being really great comfort food where you just want to curl up and enjoy and Netflix is going to be great. So, it’s that combination of comfort and innovation that’s so powerful for us. And when I think of the quarter just to wrap up, the one little time I was not watching Netflix on Sunday I was watching Tiger Woods and the PGA, and like probably half of the America, and when I think of those beautiful shots right down the middle of the fairway I think about the 6,000 employees at Netflix hitting that perfect clean shot and that’s what the quarter wants. So congratulations to everyone on a fantastic Q1 and looking forward to getting the green jacket for the year for this team.”

For the quarter, the company reported a growth of 9.6 million streaming customers. This was ahead of what was expected and a new record for the company.

Netflix reported paid net adds in Q1 of 9.6 million (with 1.74 million in the U.S. and 7.86 million internationally). This was a growth of 16% year over year.

For the first quarter, Netflix saw revenue of $4.52 billion, a growth of 22% YOY. Wall Street had been expecting $4.5 billion. Earnings at 76 cents a share was also way ahead of the 57 cents that analysts had been waiting for.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, Netflix is expecting total paid net adds of 5.0 million. This is a decline of 8% YOY. This represents only 300,000 in the U.S. and 4.7 million for the international segment.

The company’s price increases are already beginning in the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and parts of Europe.
“The response in the U.S. so far is as we expected and is tracking similarly to what we saw in Canada following our Q4’18 increase, where our gross additions are unaffected, and we see some modest short-term churn effect as members consent to the price change,” Netflix stated.

“We’re looking forward to a strong slate of global content in the second half of the year, including new seasons of some of our biggest series, ‘Stranger Things’ (July 4th), ’13 Reasons Why,’ ‘Orange Is the New Black,’ ‘The Crown’ and ‘La Casa de Papel’ (aka ‘Money Heist’) as well as big films like Michael Bay’s ‘Six Underground’ and Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman,’” Netflix also said.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and have not been compensated for this article.