New York (CNN Business) – Netflix added 16 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic led people to stay home and consume successful documentary series such as “Tiger King” and reality shows like “Love is Blind.”
The company exceeded its own subscriber growth expectations on Tuesday when it reported its first-quarter earnings.
Netflix now has 183 million subscribers worldwide.
The service said it expects to add another 7.5 million subscribers in the second quarter.
Netflix’s earnings in the first quarter of 2020 more than doubled, from $ 344 million in the prior year quarter to $ 709 million. Its revenue increased 28% to $ 5.7 billion. Netflix’s share price remained largely unchanged after trading hours.
Despite its impressive jump in profits and subscribers, the company’s letter to shareholders was grim, focusing on the coronavirus pandemic.
“In our more than 20 years of history, we have never seen a more uncertain or haunting future,” the company said. “At Netflix, we are well aware that we are fortunate to have a service that is even more meaningful for homebound individuals and that we can operate remotely with minimal disruption in the short to medium term.
Netflix said that, as well as its competition, it is “temporarily seeing more views and an increase in the growth of its number of memberships.” That, in turn, could cause problems in the future, the company warned.
“We expect visualization to decline and membership growth to slow as home confinement ends, which we hope will be soon,” he said.
The company also discussed possible disruptions to its business, including content production.
“When it comes to production, almost all filming has stopped globally, with the exception of some countries like Korea and Iceland,” said Netflix. ” This has been devastating for millions of workers in the television and film industry. ”
That said, Netflix noted that it would be releasing all of the shows and movies that were already scheduled to run in its second quarter.
“While our productions are largely halted worldwide, we benefit from a large amount of content that was complete and ready for release or post-production when filming stopped,” the company added.
Netflix also shared the audience numbers for one of its most popular series: “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”
The documentary series, which tells the story of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, has been a hit for the past few weeks, generating online debates, memes, and opinion pieces.
Not to mention a huge audience. Netflix said 64 million homes worldwide have watched the series.
Netflix is not the only service that has received a boost thanks to homebound people.
Disney +, Disney’s new streaming service, surpassed the 50 million subscriber mark earlier this month, putting it a striking distance from its long-term goals.
“I am very impressed with the execution of Disney +,” Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, said Tuesday in the company’s post-earnings call. “I’ve never seen such a good headline run to learn something new and master it … I take my hat off to them.”
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