Netflix reports ‘gigantic opportunity’ despite slowing growth
Netflix has grown slower than it expected in the first three months of the year, but insists that the opportunity for growth is "gigantic".
The streaming firm added 4.95 million new subscribers in the quarter, fewer than the 5.2 million it had forecast, BBC News reports.
In the US, the firm added a third fewer new members than the same period a year ago, while overseas members fell 22%.
Netflix blamed the drop partly on shifting some of its popular shows to the second quarter of the year.
The firm said its House of Cards series, which last year debuted in the first quarter but for this year has been pushed into the second quarter, was the main reason for the lower-than-expected subscriber growth.
Netflix said it still expected to add 8.15 million new members in total for the first half of the year, just below the 8.42 it added in the first half of last year.
By this weekend, the firm said it expected to reach 100 million subscribers globally.
"It's a good start," said chief executive Reed Hastings.
He said that the growth of the global internet meant the opportunity for the firm was still "gigantic", and said the firm planned to continue investing in films and shows aimed at increasing its membership.
"We have come to see these quarterly variances as mostly noise in the long-term growth trend and adoption of internet TV," he added.