Netflix adds more subscribers in Q3 than expected

This article is more than 12 months old

Oct 18, 2019 06:00 am

LOS ANGELES Netflix added slightly more paying subscribers than Wall Street expected in the third quarter, a relief to investors who had worried the company might fall short just as Disney and Apple prepare to ramp up the streaming wars.

The results for July through September represented a rebound from the previous quarter when Netflix lost US streaming customers for the first time in eight years and missed targets for overseas subscribers.

For the third quarter, it added 6.77 million paid customers around the globe, topping the nearly 6.7 million average expectation of analysts, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Its total subscriber count topped 158 million.

The company projected it would pick up 7.6 million customers in the last three months of this year. Analysts had expected a forecast of 9.4 million.

But it will face new competition starting in November from Disney+, a streaming service from Walt Disney Co that will be stocked with movies and TV shows from Disney's popular Marvel, Star Wars, animation and other properties. - REUTERS