The surge announced Tuesday left Netflix with
nearly 149 million subscribers through March.
Netflix expects to add another 5 million
subscribers during the current quarter ending
June, but that projection fell well below analysts’
forecast. It would also represent a decline from
the 5.9 million customers that the service picked
up during the same period last year.
Netflix’s stock briefly dipped by almost 2% in
extended trading to $353 after the numbers
came out. In regular trading, shares rose 3%
to $359.46.
The company tested the bounds of its popularity
with a recent a recent price hike that raised the
cost of its most popular plan to $13 a month, a
$2 increase. New U.S. subscribers had to start
paying the higher price in January, but it only
recently started to hit existing customers.
Netflix says it doesn’t expect the price increase
to trigger significant cancellations, thought
its second-quarter forecast implies otherwise.
The company expects to add just 300,000 U.S.
subscribers from April through June, down from
700,000 at the same time last year.
Competition facing Netflix will heat up toward
the end of this year when both Disney and
Apple plan to start selling their own video
streaming services backed by big budgets.
Disney’s offering, due out in November, could be
a bigger threat because it will feature a library
of classic films supplemented with original
programming cooked up by a company with a
proven record of churning out crowd-pleasing
entertainment. What’s more, the service — called
Disney Plus — initially will cost just $7 per month.