Netflix subs pass 65 million

Netflix has seen its global subscriber count surge past 65 million and has cited the strength of its original content for the growth.

Netflix boss Reed Hastings

The US SVoD service added 3.3 million new subscribers worldwide in its second quarter, bringing its total number to 65.6 million. The firm, which now has 42 million members in the US alone, reported 900,000 domestic and 2.37 million international net adds for the quarter.

CEO Reed Hastings and chief financial officer David Wells said the “higher-than-expected” subscriber gains were “fuelled by the growing strength of our original programming slate.”

First seasons of Marvel’s Daredevil, Sense8, DreamWorks Animation’s Dragons: Race to the Edge and comedy Grace and Frankie all premiered in the second quarter, as well as the third run of original comedy-drama Orange is the New Black.

Orange is the New Black

In a letter to shareholders, the company said more than 90% of its members had watched original content and said it would “devote more investment to originals both in absolute dollars and percentage terms.”

Its global subscriber count was also boosted by its international expansion strategy.

The firm made its foray into Australia and New Zealand in March and has recently announced launches across Southern Europe. The company is also expected to launch in China, India and South Korea soon, and has confirmed plans to launch in Japan by the fourth quarter.

However, investing in original content and expanding overseas has caused a 63% fall-off in net income for Netflix, according to the results, which were released today. The firm also projected that its spending on content would approach US$5bn in 2016 while expenses for marketing will be nearly US$1bnn next year.

Meanwhile, Hastings said subscribers should brace themselves for higher-priced plans in the future but did not reveal details on how the cost might change from the current US$7.99 a month package.