Netflix Nears 100 Million Subscribers (go.com) 47
With the release of its first-quarter earnings, Netflix predicted it will surpass 100 million global subscribers this weekend. "The service added nearly 5 million subscribers during the first three months of the year, and will end March with 98.7 million customers in roughly 190 countries," reports ABC News. From the report: About 51 million of Netflix's subscribers are in the U.S. By the end of this year, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson expects the majority of the company's subscribers to be overseas. Netflix ended March with nearly 48 million subscribers outside the U.S. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings expects the next 100 million subscribers to come more quickly than the first 100 million, but he didn't provide a specific timetable during online video review of the company's first quarter. The Los Gatos, California company currently has a market value of about $63 billion. Its stock rose $1.90 to $149.15 in Monday's extended trading, even though subscriber growth during the first quarter came in slightly below management forecasts. As it is, Netflix expects to spend about $6 billion on programming this year. The Los Gatos, California, company earned $178 million on revenue of $2.6 billion in the first quarter. Analysts predict Netflix will make $482 million on revenue of more than $11 billion for the entire year.
will end March with 98.7 million customers (Score:2)
A bold prediction to make...in April.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm stunned that they Only have 100 million customers so far. With all of those claims that they're using over a third of all worldwide bandwidth for Netflix video streaming, I would have figured that they had closer to 250 million global users by now.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Accounts not Users. You probably need to multiply by 3 or 4 to get a more accurate number of actual people using Netflix due to families, account sharing, etc.
Netflix is USA only (Score:1)
The catalogue sucks if you're not in the USA. Even some of the EU countries cannot access most of the content without using some form of the VPN access. If I am paying for it, then give me all of the service or gtfo.
Re: (Score:2)
Complain about the old media cartels, not Netflix.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Stories Out of Order on Front Page (Score:4, Insightful)
Editor's note: the story has been moved up on the front page due its popularity.
Stop it. I scan new articles from the top of the front page down until I hit one I've already seen (on the last visit). I don't want article I'm finished with popping up again at the top.
If I Care, I'll Remember and Revisit It Myself (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is that still a thing?
Re: (Score:2)
https://theoldreader.com/ [theoldreader.com] (in case you're not being facetious).
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
They would likely have a bigger subscriber growth number if content wasn't region locked. There's a huge difference in content between even US and Canada netflix and what's available in both countries. Not even comparing the differences between US/UK or CDN/UK libraries. For me that's really something I'd enjoy seeing, but I doubt will happen short of another decade.
Something else though, there is a lack of material in their library at least here in Canada. Then again, there was also a huge lack in Bell
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Another problem for Canada is that 21% of the population speaks french [wikipedia.org] and the content available for them on Netflix is much, much fewer. I check every time to see which languages (or at least subtitles) are available when I watch something and it's quite rare to see french as an option, maybe one title for every 25~30 that I watch.
My brother is thinking about dropping Netflix because frankly, there's almost nothing for him to watch, literally.
Re: (Score:2)
Am in Belgium, there's less content with Flemmish/Dutch options (60% of population, generally better off financially) than French, and in many cases there's French as the only subtitles - for some reason, they don't offer English subtitles on a lot of content, despite Brussels being capitol of Europe and NATO+UN offices (LOTS of foreigners)
Re: (Score:2)
Closer to 10% actually. When you fill out a census in Canada, you're given the option to fill out the "primary language you speak at home" which is where you get 21% from. You're then given the "what other languages do you fluently speak/etc." Half of those people speak both english and french fluently.
Re: (Score:2)
Believe me, the question should be "What other languages do you think you fluently speak/etc" because you'd have a hard time recognizing what they speak as "english".
Re: (Score:2)
you'd have a hard time recognising what Quebecois speak as French
Quebecois French is much closer to what was spoken/written ~150 years ago. Much like how in parts of the US, english that's used is much closer to that period as well. English in Canada, shifted with english of the UK and still does.
Re: (Score:2)
Well we do use a lot of "u" in our english up here. Just remember, if you head to eastern Canada and someone asks if you want mayo with your fries that's normal.
Re: (Score:1)
You have to remember that those 100m accounts are probably being used by around 300-400m people, though. Couples, families, roommates, friends who account share, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Not worth it.
Long time Netflxer, it's not good. (Score:2)
I've been with Netflix many years now and it just getting worse, never better for me.
My account type has split to include DVD's by mail, I don't care how easy it is I know many would sit till I owned them; so let that one go staying streaming only.
The Stargate series being removed was the start (Slashdot had an article on this), and between the last time I let Netflix lapse "Mankind (The history of us)" was removed as many others. I have a hard time finding anything worth watching.
But for less than $10 a mo
Keep the discs coming! (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a long-time Netflix subscriber - to the disc service, not the streaming service. Blu-rays look way better than streaming. However, what a lot of people don't know is that the disc selection is vast compared to the streaming selection. I googled it recently and found articles that claimed with streaming you had the choice of 6000 movies, with the disc service the selection was about 96,000 titles.
Unfortunately, the same articles claimed that while the disc-mailing service was very profitable, only a small percentage of netflix's subscribers used it (something like 5%) and that most likely it would go away in the next few years...
So, if you don't like the lmited selection of Netflix's streaming service, get the discs and let's keep it alive!
Re: (Score:2)
Are the disc-services even available outside of the US?!?
Re: (Score:2)
Big Thumbs Down (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Just curious -- when do you see thumbs up/down? When I watched the latest episode of a series I'm binging last night, I saw a star rating (for that episode). Is it only when you are browsing new stuff to watch?
Re: (Score:2)