MUMBAI: Despite missing out on domestic subscriber addition for two consecutive quarters, streaming colossal Netflix beat its forecast for overall subscriber additions for the fourth quarter of 2019. The company also beat on the top and bottom lines for the quarter.
The streaming giant witnessed a net addition of 8.76 mn paid subscribers globally including 420,000 streaming customers addition in the U.S. and 8.33 million overseas in the year-end 2019 quarter. Netflix reported $5.47 bn revenue for the quarter while earnings per share (EPS) for the same quarter amounted to $1.30.
“We generated Q4-record paid net adds in each of the EMEA, LATAM and APAC regions, while UCAN paid net adds totaled 0.55m (with 0.42m in the US) vs. 1.75m in the year ago quarter. Our low membership growth in UCAN is probably due to our recent price changes and to US competitive launches. We have seen more muted impact from competitive launches outside the US (NL, CA, AU). As always, we are working hard to improve our service to combat these factors and push net adds higher over time,” the company said in a note to shareholders.
The company ended 2019 with 167.1 million streaming customers worldwide including 61 mn in the U.S. and 106 mn internationally. For the first quarter of 2020, Netflix forecast global paid net adds of 7.0m vs. 9.6m in the first quarter of 2019, which was an all-time high in quarterly paid net adds. According to the company, the forecast reflects the continued, slightly elevated churn levels it is seeing in the US.
“Many media companies and tech giants are launching streaming services, reinforcing the major trend of the transition from linear to streaming entertainment. This is happening all over the world and is still in its early stages, leaving ample room for many services to grow as linear TV wanes. We have a big headstart in streaming and will work to build on that by focusing on the same thing we have focused on for the past 22 years - pleasing members. We believe if we do that well, Netflix will continue to prosper,” Netflix added.
