By Michael Liedtke and Tali Arbel

Netflix added a flood of new subscribers amid the coronavirus pandemic and also offered clues to a possible successor for founding CEO Reed Hastings, who on Thursday named the company's chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, as co-CEO.

"Ted has been my partner for decades. This change makes formal what was already informal — that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix," said Hastings in a statement.

The company picked up 10.1 million worldwide subscribers during the April-June period, more than triple what it usually adds in that period.

The increase announced Thursday with Netflix's second-quarter earnings eclipsed the gain of 8.3 million subscribers projected among analysts polled by FactSet. Netflix ended June with 193 million worldwide subscribers, including 70 million in the U.S. and Canada, its largest geographic market.

Nearly 26 million of those subscribers have joined Netflix during the first six months of this year — more than double the number compared with last year — as the pandemic curtailed travel and even nights out on the town. The restrictions have turned out to be a boon for Netflix, which also faces a slew of new streaming competitors such as Disney Plus and HBO Max.

Netflix Inc., however, said its subscriber growth has begun to slow after it added just 2 million fewer customers in the past six months as it did for all of 2019. It forecasts just 2.5 million new additions for the current quarter.

The pandemic has shut down Hollywood, limiting the ability of TV and movie studios to produce more entertainment to feed Netflix and other video streaming services. That could limit their appeal if viewers run out of new things to watch. Netflix said Thursday that it is slowly resuming production, mostly in Asia and Europe, and its 2020 lineup remains intact. Shooting delays mean big shows and movies slated for next year will come out more in the second half of 2021.

People spending more time at home due to the pandemic has "massively accelerated the shift" from traditional TV to streaming video," said eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom in an email. That bodes well for Netflix, the streaming pioneer. "Even as lockdowns are relaxed and new competitors begin to scale their services, Netflix will extend its lead as the first stop for entertainment." He predicts that Netflix will get one-third of streaming subscribers globally in 2020.

The Los Gatos, California, company's extraordinary expansion helped Netflix earn $720 million on revenue of $6.15 billion during the second quarter.

Investors have been betting the pandemic will make Netflix more popular than ever. Since public health experts officially declared the pandemic on March 11, Netflix's stock has soared by 50 percent.

The shares tumbled 10 percent to $473.24 in Thursday's extended trading after the subscriber growth numbers came out.

___

Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California.

Share:
More In Business
Michigan Judge Sentences Walmart Shoplifters to Wash Parking Lot Cars
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
State Department Halts Plan to buy $400M of Armored Tesla Vehicles
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
Goodyear Blimp at 100: ‘Floating Piece of Americana’ Still Thriving
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
Is U.S. Restaurants’ Breakfast Boom Contributing to High Egg Prices?
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
Load More