Netflix posts poor subscriber growth

Netflix reported their second quarter earnings this afternoon and investors were not pleased.

The video streaming company posted disappointing subscriber growth, which is usually strong during the first half of the year.

For the last quarter, the company added just 1.1 million streaming subscribers, adding up to a total of 27.6 million.

Last year, the company added 2 million subscribers during the same period.

The company charges $7.99 per month for unlimited streaming of the company's "Watch Instantly" catalog. The catalog has over 25,000 movies and TV episodes. The movie categories are lacking, but the TV catalog is quite substantial.

CEO Reed Hastings added that the company will likely struggle to add subscribers in the third quarter, as the Olympics will fill the "entertainment needs" of most.

Despite all the headwinds, including losing 900,000 DVD-by-mail subscribers, the company still made a profit of $6.2 million.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Jul 2012 22:08

Mr_Bill06

They have to increase the amount of good movies, they are always adding movies but most of them I have never even heard of and are rated so low. Pretty much every time I come across an older movie I would like to see, I check Netflix and they never have the movie. The TV selection is great, but like they say the movie selection is very lacking and tons of crappy titles no one wants to watch.

24.7.2012 23:13 #1

SomeBozo

I bet Netfl1x is hoping now they never tried to split their on-line streaming and mailing service now. I'm of the opinion when they did that it really hurt their business more then they thought and still fighting to over come that one bad misstep... Worse part i don't see them recovering from it any time soon, especially when you consider others are not getting into the on-line streaming game...

25.7.2012 01:05 #2

Mez

You have to buy streaming if you want to get DVDs. I watch DVDs because I don't like the TV shows so I went with BB.

Like other old worn out companies they neglect their roots. They are morons not to invest more in expanding their DVD catalog to include more old movies.

25.7.2012 19:12 #3

molsen

I think it falls in the region of almost getting it right. I look for older popular movies and netflix does not have in stream. BB though dish was god awful.

25.7.2012 22:16 #4

LordRuss

Originally posted by Mez: You have to buy streaming if you want to get DVDs. I watch DVDs because I don't like the TV shows so I went with BB.

Like other old worn out companies they neglect their roots. They are morons not to invest more in expanding their DVD catalog to include more old movies. That's the thing that killed it for me... They wanted me to do more streaming than DVD-ing. Plain & simple, I hate streaming. And then they started doing the RENT only version of the movies... It's like WTF, I want to see the 'making of' stuff too.

NetNuts has simply turned into another HBO-ish channel like any other media network you would subscribe to that limits your content.

As for the investors pissing & moaning about 'their' money - those assholes should be happy that ANYONE even joined! Here's a thought... It's a bad economy. You have stock that's still MAKING money & not losing anything. How about shutting the hell up?

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

26.7.2012 12:45 #5

Mez

Streaming is much cheaper they were getting it very cheaply, now only cheaply. DVDs get lost and scratched.

26.7.2012 19:37 #6

Clam_Up

Originally posted by LordRuss: It's like WTF, I want to see the 'making of' stuff too.

NetNuts has simply turned into another HBO-ish channel like any other media network you would subscribe to that limits your content. When I first heard that Netflix was going to start renting stripped-down versions of the retail DVDs, I thought that'd be the end of my subscription. But really, most of the bonus stuff is just Hollywood patting itself on the back, saying what a great job everyone did.

Some of it is interesting, but I can do without it.

Reason for edit: Department of Redundancy Department detected an error mistake.

27.7.2012 11:44 #7

Mr-Movies

Originally posted by Mr_Bill06: They have to increase the amount of good movies, they are always adding movies but most of them I have never even heard of and are rated so low. Pretty much every time I come across an older movie I would like to see, I check Netflix and they never have the movie. The TV selection is great, but like they say the movie selection is very lacking and tons of crappy titles no one wants to watch. They use to have a ton of old movies but I've noticed the same as you, they just don't have as much old stuff as they did a few years ago. I think it has to do with their model change and attempting to split the company.

28.7.2012 02:17 #8

LordRuss

Originally posted by Clam_Up: When I first heard that Netflix was going to start renting stripped-down versions of the retail DVDs, I thought that'd be the end of my subscription. But really, most of the bonus stuff is just Hollywood patting itself on the back, saying what a great job everyone did.

Some of it is interesting, but I can do without it.
I've seen a lot of that starting to happen as well & most of the times I'm right there with you. It's with the SciFi & action films that I usually want to see these 'value added' specials.

'Romancing My Nuts' or 'Twisting of the Turd' tear jerkers that the wife wants to see are REALLY low on my totem pole as to how or even why they made the damn thing.

But like a Kevin Smith movie... He has a bunch of silliness that goes along with the movie that I believe is now cut out of these 'specialty' rental movies now. I simply won't stand for that. I consider it a form of censorship.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

28.7.2012 15:51 #9

MCraz

I had a membership with Netflix and the reason I cancelled was over the streaming split,and I also prefer my movies on DVD and they want to push you to watch streaming by not sending the DVDs as quickly as they use to. My internet connection is not that great and continually has to stop to reset streaming, so I don't even try to watch movies that way. Blockbuster is just as bad. I just recently cancelled them again, for the fact they sent me only 2 movies in one month and I send them back the next day, because I don't watch one but once and may never watch it again. If I do it will be months later and when I called about the problem they told me I could watch streaming or return to a BB store, which as far as I know don't even exist in my area any longer!

28.7.2012 18:30 #10

Mr-Movies

The quality of streaming is very poor and you ONLY get stereo sound which is a deal breaker for me. I have a limited interest in streaming for those reasons.

28.7.2012 18:49 #11

ichido

Hey Guys, coming from someone in Canada. I got Netflix here because of a free 30 day trial with new Bluray player. Movies and TV show catalogue sucks here. A few TV shows I would watch and all a lot older movies. Not Worth the money here. As others here have said, it's called torrents. I am a grandfathered internet subscriber that still has no bandwith cap on dl's.

28.7.2012 21:18 #12

bodyman247

need better movies!

28.7.2012 22:08 #13

Mez

Originally posted by Clam_Up: Originally posted by LordRuss: It's like WTF, I want to see the 'making of' stuff too.

NetNuts has simply turned into another HBO-ish channel like any other media network you would subscribe to that limits your content. When I first heard that Netflix was going to start renting stripped-down versions of the retail DVDs, I thought that'd be the end of my subscription. But really, most of the bonus stuff is just Hollywood patting itself on the back, saying what a great job everyone did.

Me, I start up the movies and continue to watch cable for 1/2 hr. before I even check to see if the adds are over. I refuse to be taken advantage of.

Red Box was the first to rent that add ridden DVDs. Remember the DVD companies didn't want them to rent movies the first few weeks they came out? Well that all went away when they agreed to rent the for rent only DVDs. If the rest of the renters didn't go along they would probably be the ones that had to wait. The DVD sellers probbly didn't like Red Box because they didn't buy the junk movies that BB used to try to rent.

29.7.2012 12:00 #14

pudly1

Netflix is great! What the heck else can you get for $8 dollars these days? A Big mac and some fries, maybe? How many good channels are on nowadays? Anything is better than MTV or the E channel.

30.7.2012 15:29 #15

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