Netflix Adds 15 Million Subscribers Amid Coronavirus, ‘Tiger King’ Boom; Warns Of Downturn In Future
While Wall Street analystshave ranked Netflixas the favorite of “stay at home” stocks, Netflix warned of a potential downturn in the future.
“In our 20+ year history, we have never seen a future more uncertain or unsettling,” the company said in a letter to shareholders. The letter notes that growth will likely slow “after the lockdown is lifted country-by-country,” and that executives expect “viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon.” The letter continues:
“At Netflix, we’re acutely aware that we are fortunate to have a service that is even more meaningful to people confined at home, and which we can operate remotely with minimal disruption in the short to medium term,” the letter reads. “Like other home entertainment services, we’re seeing temporarily higher viewing and increased membership growth. In our case, this is offset by a sharply stronger US dollar, depressing our international revenue, resulting in revenue-as-forecast.” Netflix is taking extra precautions right now in an uncertain time, including “temporarily reduced the number of product innovations we try.”
The question becomes about the flow of original content, of which Netflix holds advantage over their competitors. Because Netflix releases full seasons in their entirety, they don’t have to worry about production delays for ongoing series like networks do. The TV shows it has in the pipeline for May, June, and July are likely already complete, The Verge reports. But dozens ofNetflix productions have been stalleddue to the pandemic, which could affect the flow of content down the line.
“While our productions are largely paused around the world, we benefit from a large pipeline of content that was either complete and ready for launch or in post-production when filming stopped,” the letter reads. “So, while we’re certainly impacted by the global production pause, we expect to continue to be able to provide a terrific variety of new titles throughout 2020 and 2021.”
Tiger King Success May Soon Be Outmatched
But of course, this is all by Netflix standards of a “view,” which the streamer recently changed its new metric to countat least two minutes of a series or movie.
