Netflix revealed on Wednesday that it has topped 65 million total subscribers, crediting original series such as “Daredevil” and “Grace and Frankie” for the growth in second quarter 2015.
Of that 65.55 million total members, 62.71 million are paying customers. In the U.S., there are 42.3 million total customers, and 41.06 million are paid. The difference obviously falls under “international.” The 3.3 million members added overall in this three-month period was a Q2 record.
For Q2, Netflix reported 6 cents earnings per share (EPS) on $1.644 billion in revenue and $26.3 million in net income. Revenue was a hair under forecasts, but EPS topped the general consensus estimate by 2 cents.
Netflix stock (NFLX) closed down 2.23 percent on Wednesday to $98.13 per share — before the earnings were announced. Since the announcement, the share price has soared in the after-hours market. At the time of this writing, the stock was back up 10 percent.
On Tuesday, Netflix backed Charter Communications’ bid to acquire Time Warner Cable in exchange for continued free access to the cable company’s customers.
The following day, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells reiterated support for the deal: “This move ensures that all online video providers can aggressively compete for consumers’ favor, without selective and increasing fees paid to ISPs. Charter’s interconnection policy is the right way to scale the Internet. It means consumer will receive the fast connection speeds they expect. The Charter/TWC transaction, with this condition, would deliver significant public interest benefits to broadband consumers, and we urge its timely approval.”
Netflix announced a 7-for-1 stock split last month, an attempt to make entry into being a shareholder more affordable. The company surpassed 62 million global streaming subscribers in Q1, with 59.62 million paid subscribers.