Netflix Hits Q2 Numbers, With Help From 'OITNB'

Streaming media company Netflix reported its second quarter numbers Monday afternoon and the figures were in line with market expectations.

Netflix reported Q2 profits of $1.15 per share and revenue of $1.34 billion. The company also announced it now has 50 million subscribers worldwide. Prior to the result announcement, analysts were projecting $1.14 per share on revenues of $1.34 billion. They were projecting a worldwide subscriber base of 49 million (36.2 million U.S. subscribers and 13.7 million international).

CEO Reed Hastings' quarterly letter to stockholders doesn't contain many surprises. He reveals that this year's subscription rate increase for new U.S. subscribers has had minimal impact on rate growth.

While the company still isn't talking specifically about viewer numbers, Hastings does attribute some of the Q2 success to its original series "Orange Is The New Black," which premiered during the period. He specifically mentions the Netflix marketing campaign for the show: "(it) represents our largest content marketing push to date and we are pleased with the reaction from fans."

In his shareholder letter, Hastings does mention the company's stance on net neutrality, although his comments were restrained:

"Our focus on strong net neutrality, including interconnection, is about preventing large ISPs from holding our joint customers hostage with poor performance to extract payments from us, other Internet content firms, and Internet transit suppliers such as Level 3 and Cogent.

Our policy goals are for the FCC to not sanctify paid prioritization, and for the DOJ/FCC to block the merger of Comcast/TWC, or at the very least, to require as condition to approving the merger that the combined entity be prevented from charging for interconnection."