Netflix has increased its subscriber count past 75 million globally, according to the streaming video service’s latest quarterly earnings report. A few hours into New Year’s Day, Netflix claims it reached the milestone after finishing the fourth quarter with 74.76 million subscribers, an increase of 5.59 million members in the quarter, which itself beats forecasts of 5.15 million and the 4.33 million net additions brought in over the same period last year.
Current forecasts for the first quarter suggest 6.1 million net additions, up from 4.88 million for the first quarter last year, and is likely to be driven by the expansion into 130 more countries that took place earlier this month. In the US specifically, net additions were down to 1.56 million compared to 1.9 million in the same quarter last year, with the service ending 2015 with nearly 45 million US members. US net additions for the first quarter are expected to be around 1.75 million, down from 2.28 million in the previous year.
The company does note that it’s US net additions are starting to slow down, in part due to its current high penetration in the market. One issue it will have to face is the release of a “substantial number” of US members from price grandfathering on the HD plan, with affected members being given the option of continuing their current $8 subscription but on the SD plan, or switching to the $10 HD version. Netflix anticipates there may be only a slightly elevated churn, as these customers will have been with the company for at least two years.
For the quarter, total revenues hit $1.82 billion, providing earnings per share of 10 cents and a net income of $43 million. According to the figures, the lion’s share of revenue stems from US streaming, with $1.1 billion in revenue coming from that area alone and generating a contribution profit of $379 million. While international streaming brought in $566 million in revenue, it endured a contribution loss of $109 million, said to be caused through service launches in Japan, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
Original content continues to be a cornerstone of the service, with series produced for Netflix including Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Sense8 receiving critical acclaim. Original movie The Ridiculous Six became the most-viewed movie on Netflix on the week of its debut in every territory, as well as the most-viewed movie ever on the service in the first 30 days of availability. For 2016, over 600 hours of original programming is expected to be produced, up from 450 hours last year, including new seasons for 30 original series, eight films, 35 new seasons of kids shows, and a number of documentaries and stand up comedy specials.
