Netflix lost nearly 1 million customers last fall following a hated price hike and several poorly received service changes. According to Eric Wold, analyst at B. Riley & Co, the instant streaming giant is already on its way to turning that slump around.
Wold said Netflix earned 400,000 new customers before the end of 2011 and will gain 1.7 million more by March.
The addition of over 2 million new U.S. subscribers comes at a time when Netflix will begin a push into original programming. Its first series, "Lilyhammer," begins on February 6. Starring Steven Van Zandt ("The Sopranos") as a former New York mafioso relocated to Norway, the show is a Netflix exclusive. The Los Gatos company is developing drama series "House of Cards" and an adaptation of the upcoming horror novel "Hemlock Grove" by Brian McGreevy. A new season of "Arrested Development" is also slated for release sometime next year on Netflix.
Last September, the company announced in a letter to investors that it would end the third quarter with 1 million fewer subscribers than it had expected, leading stocks to swiftly drop almost 20 percent. The following weeks saw no improvement, with prices falling to 75 percent less than a summertime high of $300.
Netflix's recent expansion into Latin America, the UK and Ireland will certainly affect its subscriber base. The company's newly minted European service faces a staunch competitor, LoveFilm, that already has a head-start with 2 million customers.
"In our opinion, stabilizing domestic streaming sub trends will lessen competitive concerns, while strong initial results from the Latin American launch will help revive optimism towards Netflix not being just a domestic-only phenomenon," said Wold. (via Home Media Magazine)
