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7 percent of all Americans are members of Netflix
April 26th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
If not everyone is a member of Netflix by now, the popular DVD rental by mail company that offers streaming movies over the Internet, then an awful lot of Americans are. Seven percent of all people in the U.S. belong to Netflix, and the company now has more subscribers than the largest cable TV operator in the U.S.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Company has enjoyed substantial growth over the past year. Netflix's global subscriber base grew almost 70 percent over the past year, to 23.6 million users, officially dethroning Comcast as the country's biggest provider of subscription video content.
In Netflix's first-quarter report, the company reported earnings of $60.2 million, or $1.11 a share, up from $32 million, or 59 cents a share a year ago.
Revenue rose 46 percent to $719 million. Both figures topped Wall Street estimates, but shares fell 2.5 percent in after-hours trade on light forecasts for the second quarter. Netflix said it expects earnings of 93 cents to $1.15 a share for the second quarter, lower than analysts' forecasts.
One thing holds clear. When you're a giant, growth gets harder.
Netflix says it expects subscriber growth to continue at a rapid clip for the rest of the year, but warned that year-ago comparisons will get tougher in the coming quarters.
The release also noted the emergence of new, competing services Hulu Plus, Amazon, Prime.
In addition, Netflix hopes to combat increased competition with more unique content. The company announced it had bought its first original show last month: "House of Cards," featuring Kevin Spacey.
"This represents slightly greater creative risk than we've taken in the past, but we think it's reasonable given the popularity of the original BBC show," Netflix said in a "letter to shareholders."
There is a share of disappointments, as well. Netflix launched in Canada late last year, and it ended the first quarter of 2011 with about 800,000 Canadian subscribers -- lower than the company had forecast.
"We are still learning the seasonality curve and nuances specific to Canada," Netflix said in its release.