Netflix Inc said on Monday its
quarterly profit more than doubled, boosted by strong growth in U.S. and
international subscribers as a price increase for its most popular U.S.
video streaming plan did not deter new users.
Netflix added 570,000 U.S. customers in
the second fiscal quarter ended June 30, passing 50 million worldwide
subscribers for the first time. It added 1.12 million customers in
international markets. bit.ly/UnqT1D
The company’s shares rose nearly 1
percent at $456.21 in after-hours trading, after the company also said
it expected average revenue per user to rise slowly as it wins over more
subscribers at the new prices.
The company in May increased the price
of its most popular video streaming plan by $1 per month to $9 for new
customers in the United States — the company’s first price hike in its
largest market in three years.
The company suffered a consumer exodus and stock plunge after it announced an unpopular price increase in July 2011.
Netflix executives also said they were
contemplating an eventual move into China, the world’s most populous
country. “It’s conspicuously large, and it’s conspicuously a growing and
very strong economy,” David Wells, Netflix’s chief financial officer,
said on a video-streamed conference call with analysts. “Look for the
future in terms of an answer from us in China.”
Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings
cautioned that any move into China, if it happens, would occur far in
the future. “We’re not thinking about it hard right now,” Hastings said
in an interview. “We are really focused on Europe at this point.”
The company said it planned to expand
into Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg in
September, taking its international addressable market to more than 180
million broadband households — double the current U.S. market.
Netflix has invested in original series
such as “House of Cards” and the Emmy-nominated “Orange is the New
Black” to square off against competition from online video players
Amazon.com Inc and Hulu. The June release of a second season of “Orange”
helped lure customers during the quarter, Netflix said.
The company’s profit rose to $71
million, or $1.15 per share, from $29.5 million, or 49 cents per share, a
year earlier. Revenue rose to $1.34 billion from $1.07 billion.
Analysts on average had expected $1.16 per share in profit on revenue of $1.34 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Netflix also repeated its opposition to
the planned merger of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc. The
company called on regulators to block the merger or place a condition
that would prevent the combined company from charging interconnection
fees to deliver video over their broadband networks.
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