Netflix posted its earnings report for the June quarter today and revealed that it added 5.15 million subscribers for the quarter. That may seem impressive at first glance, but it’s more than 1 million fewer subscribers than what the streaming giant was anticipating. While it’s one thing for Netflix to fall short of Wall Street expectations, it’s another matter entirely for Netflix to fall short of its own internal projections.
All told, Netflix over the last three months added 670,000 new subscribers in the United States and 4.47 million new subscribers overseas. That comes out to 4.87 million new subscribers for the quarter, far below the 6.2 million Netflix was hoping for. All told, Netflix currently boasts upwards of 130 million subscribers across the globe.
Predictably, Netflix shares are down in after-hours trading, with the stock trading down 56 points at the time of this writing. Nonetheless, it’s not all doom and gloom for Netflix. Far from it, revenue for the quarter checked in at $3.1 billion, a modest 10% increase from the same quarter a year-ago.
Netflix also took some time to pat itself on the back for the avalanche of Emmy nominations it received last week, with its letter to shareholders reading in part:
We were honored last week with the most Emmy nominations of any network. The 112 Netflix nominations include five best series and best limited series nominations and are spread across 40 different scripted and unscripted series, TV movies, limited series, documentaries, talk shows, comedy specials and series for kids. This is a testament to the fantastic creators we work with across all forms of television.
Looking ahead to the next quarter, Netflix is already anticipating additional challenges to subscriber growth. Specifically, Netflix is anticipating a net add of 5 million new subscribers for the September quarter, a tad below some analyst projections that saw Netflix bringing 6 million new subscribers on board.
