Netflix Falls Short of Q2 Net Subscriber Targets, Stock Falls After-Hours

Netflix fell short of its Q2 global net subscriber addition targets in what the company’s shareholder letter Monday called a “strong but not stellar” quarter. Total net additions were 5.15 million for Q2, including 670,000 in the U.S. and 4.47 million internationally. Its Q1 letter had forecast 6.2 million global net additions for Q2, including 1.2 million in the U.S. and 5 million internationally. HBO and Disney “are evolving to focus on internet entertainment services,” and Amazon and Apple “are investing in content as part of larger ecosystem subscriptions,” said Netflix of its key competitors. “Each of these firms has unique content and is striving to find the best creators from around the world to entertain its viewers,” it said. “There has never been a better time to be a creator or consumer of content. We believe that consumer appetite for great content is broad and that there is room for multiple parties to have attractive offerings.” With anticipated additional competition from AT&T/Time Warner and from the combined Fox/Disney or Fox/Comcast, “our strategy is to simply keep improving, as we’ve been doing every year in the past,” said Netflix. In after-hours trading, the stock fell 14 percent to $344.49.