Netflix brushes aside pricing and membership fears with optimistic vision
Netflix has dismissed analyst concerns that it may have peaked after posting a disappointing increase in membership over the second quarter, when new members fell well short of a targeted increase of 2.5m, by stating that it would be wrong to become ‘too focussed’ on one quarter’s results.
Speaking to the BBC chief executive Reed Hastings said: “We grew in the second quarter from 81 to 83 million members; it wasn’t as much as we were hoping for but it was still great growth. You can’t get too focussed on any one quarter.
Asked whether a recent price increase might have precipitated the levelling out in growth Hastings added: “Nobody likes price increases, I don’t either but it’s something we need to do to supply the content that we want. We want to have so much content that there is always something great to watch on Netflix.”
Looking to the future Hastings added: “TV is getting better than it’s ever been and it’s driven by the internet. Broadcast will decline and internet TV will increase but think of the internet as just the new way to enjoy TV of all sorts. Think of the mobile phone; everyone uses the mobile phone now rather than a fixed line phone. It’ll be the same thing (for streaming TV) over the next 10 to 20 years.”
Netflix recently moved to raise rates on legacy subscriptions from $8.99 per month to $9.99.