Netflix may be the biggest name in streaming, but many analysts have predicted the company’s demise further down the line, citing an unsustainable business model.

Well, none of those analysts factored in a global pandemic that has seen large swathes of the global population under some form of lockdown, and now business is booming.

In its first-quarter report for 2020, Netflix revealed that it has added a whopping 15,77 million new subscribers worldwide, blowing other recent quarterly reports out the water.

This graph via CNBC:

There could be a further surge to come, but there are still some cashflow issues ahead:

Netflix said it expects 7.5 million global paid subscriber additions in Q2, but warned the number was “mostly guesswork” since it can’t know when stay-at-home orders around the world will be lifted. It expects lower net subscriber additions in the third quarter as more economies open and because its third quarter last year included new seasons of popular series “Stranger Things” and “Money Heist.”

….The company said it would have free cash flow for the year of negative $1 billion or better compared to its previous expectation of negative $2.5 billion. But it also said it would probably not have as straight a path to free cash flow profitability.

At the close of trading yesterday, Netflix was worth around $190 billion, making it more valuable than Disney.

In a prison cell in Texas, Joe Exotic must be stroking his handlebars and grinning from ear to ear, because Tiger King’s viewing figures would have played a large role in that spike in subscribers.

According to Variety, 64 million households worldwide started watching the show, although how many finished it is not revealed:

 Dating reality show “Love Is Blind” has been sampled by some 30 million member households.

A big surprise in the viewership tidbits offered was the Mark Wahlberg-starrer “Spenser Confidential,” an original crime drama movie directed by Peter Berg, which has been checked out by a whopping 85 million households since it bowed on March 6. The third season of the drama “Ozark” has garnered looks from 29 million member households in its first four weeks in release.

The internet giant’s viewing metrics are impossible to compare with traditional TV ratings. Netflix counts a household as having viewed a title if it was watched for at least two minutes, which is a different measure than the average-minute audience yardstick that is the Nielsen standard for measuring linear TV.

At the very least, 64 million households know that Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin are not great pals.

In the second quarter, Netflix expects strong numbers from Hollywood, Steve Carell’s Space Force, and Chris Hemsworth’s action movie Extraction.

May as well watch them all – what else do you have to do?

[sources:cbnc&variety]