Netflix Adds 16 Million New Subscribers as Homebound Consumers Stream Away

Netflix beat its forecast for subscriber growth in the first quarter as consumers in many countries stayed at home due to the coronavirus pandemic and hunted for ways to entertain themselves. From a report: The streaming giant said Tuesday it added 15.8 million new paid subscribers [alternative source] around the world in the quarter, more than double the 7 million new subscribers it had predicted for the period. In the first quarter a year ago, Netflix added 9.6 million new subscribers globally. "Like other home entertainment services, we're seeing temporarily higher viewing and increased membership growth. In our case, this is offset by a sharply stronger US dollar, depressing our international revenue, resulting in revenue-as-forecast. We expect viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon," Netflix said in its letter to shareholders.

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[alvinrod]

I guess the efforts of all those media companies to create viral videos had some unintended consequences.

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[DontBeAMoran]

COVID-19 was developed in a lab by Disney, Netflix, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, DHL and all the G8 governments in order to increase sales and/or subscribers and/or tracking and control.

Did I miss something?

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[phalse phace]

Did I miss something?

The lab is owned by Bill Gates and they all communicated with each other through 5G

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[WalrusSlayer]

Did I miss something?

The lab is owned by Bill Gates and they all communicated with each other through 5G

And as humorous as that is... the really, really sad fact is that there are a non-trivial number of people who would believe exactly that.

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[DontBeAMoran]

Well, Bill Gates does have a lot of experience with viruses... /sarcasm

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[rtb61]

Worse than that, those people link into some real fringe mentally disturbed types and there is real hatred brewing down there, quite disturbing, rather than mocking and taking the piss, they will do what really mentally disturbed people do when they get a hold of firearms, so not so funny.

Netflix is of course getting customers back on rotation from other streaming services. Disney lacks content and I am on my free month trial from Amazon and I already want to drop it, no skip recap when binge watching and

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[DontBeAMoran]

People stick with Amazon because of the free shipping. Amazon video is just a bonus. I think there's also music, I didn't even check it after more than a year.

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[backslashdot]

Plausible. I was wondering where they blew the $2 billion they were supposed to have spent on making quality content.

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[antdude]

Prove it! :P

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[Hortense Yaya]

I think a VR rig with a full set of orifice plugs is what you're aiming for.

Atmos

[StirlingArcher]

Please may we have Atmos, and not just on a pricey 4k tier?

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[bn-7bc]

does any equipment that does not have 4k capability (at lest in the consumer segment) have atmos?

The DVD service is still pretty awesome

[kalpol]

They have just about everything on disc, and with libraries closed it's a great alternative, if you're a little patient.

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[bn-7bc]

does any equipment that does not have 4k capability (at lest in the consumer segment) have atmos?

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[bn-7bc]

ugh niss clicked sorru abut the incorrect nesting