Netflix added 15.8 million new subscribers worldwide during the first three months of 2020, more than double its best forecasts for this period, as global confinement to curb the coronavirus dramatically increased demand. Precisely these measures have caused the suspension of numerous filming, but the streaming service has already clarified that its original releases for 2020 will not be affected by this break.
“We work very differently in relation to the industry, because we launch our series with all the episodes at the same time. We are working differently around the world, so our series and movies for 2020 are largely filmed and they are in post-production telematically, “said content director Ted Sarandos. “We are actually pretty much on our 2021 agenda. So we don’t anticipate delaying things,” he added.
Sarandos specifically cited season four of The Crown and the animated film Over the Moon as examples of content that won’t be affected by the pandemic. “These are some of the productions filmed and in the completion stage right now that will be released later this year, as planned. We do not anticipate changing the schedule much, at least not in 2020,” he said.
Netflix also referred to the titles that have yet to resume production. “First of all, we want to make sure it is an incredibly safe working environment,” said Sarandos. “We are learning some lessons about how we handle those productions now and how we apply that to our plans to launch productions around the world,” he continued.
Netflix obtained a net profit of 709 million dollars (653 million euros) in the first quarter of 2020, which represents an improvement of 106% compared to the result in the same period of 2019 of the American company. The increase in the number of subscribers by 15.77 million during the first three months of the year is equivalent to half of subscribers earned during the entire preceding year.
And the forecasts continue to rise. For the second quarter, Netflix expects to achieve a net profit of $ 820 million (755 million euros), which would triple its result for the same period in 2019.
