Increases in both subscriber numbers and prices helped Netflix to a 43% first quarter revenue increase year-over-year.
The streaming service passed a new Q1 record by adding 7.41 million new subscribers, a 50% increase on the year. There are now 125 million subscribers across the globe, split 56.71 million in the United States and 68.29 million internationally.
Total revenues of $3,602 million are currently weighted in favour of the United States, but it is anticipated that this will be eclipsed by international revenues in the next quarter.
Chairman and CEO Reed Hastings said that the company’s strategy was more similar that it was different. “We’re continuing to invest in the marketing of content, all the things that we’ve been doing, there’s certainly some secular shift towards internet viewing, and then we’re seeing just the breadth of content that we’ve got going that’s really remarkable.”
Netflix says its investing in more marketing of its new titles to create a bigger conversation around a particular title, leading to a bigger hit within a particular market or demographic.
Bundle offers have been launched with Proximus (in Belgium), SFR Altice (France) and T-Mobile (US), and the company says it plans to introduce more in the future. Chief product officer Greg Peters said such partnerships have been beneficial in terms of subscriber retention and access to new customers.
It’s also announced the bundling of packages with Comcast and Sky