Netflix adds 6.8m subscribers in Q3
NEW YORK: Netflix has stemmed the bleeding. The streaming juggernaut overcame its rare moment of weakness from last quarter to add 6.8 million new customers in this quarter, the company reported on Wednesday, with 520,000 of them in the United States.
The rebound, after a loss of 126,000 customers domestically earlier in the year, helped Netflix recover some investor confidence as it faces an onslaught of new streaming competitors.
Still, the results for the September period were slightly lower than the company’s forecast and presage the coming competition in a field it has dominated.
Netflix had been expected to add about seven million customers, with 800,000 in the United States.
The company also reported a large jump in profit, to $665 million, on $5.2 billion in revenue, handily beating Wall Street’s income estimates of about $470 million.
Netflix, led by its chief executive, Reed Hastings, forecast steady growth for the rest of the year.
The company said it expected to add 7.6 million total new customers in the next quarter, with about 600,000 for the United States. That was below the 9.4 million total subscribers that Wall Street had expected and hints at the pending competition.
Hastings tamped down the significance of the newer entrants, citing how Netflix has been competing against streaming services like Amazon and YouTube for years, as well as traditional television.
“Fundamentally there’s not a big change here,” he said on the earnings call after the announcement.
The third-quarter results benefited from Netflix’s best-known series, Stranger Things, which introduced its hugely anticipated third season over the Fourth of July weekend.
The series drew 64 million households in the first four weeks it was available, the company said.