Netflix surpassed 50 million subscribers for the first time in its second quarter, the company said Monday.
The company added 1.7 million net subscribers for the quarter. In the United States, 36.2 million people have subscribed to Netflix's streaming service. Internationally, the figure is 13.8 million, the company reported.
Netflix met Wall Street's expectations with earnings per share of $1.15 and revenues of $1.34 billion for the quarter.
In a note to shareholders, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells credited the second season of its original series Orange is the New Black for the bump in subscribers. He is predicting a jump of 1.3 million U.S. subscribers in the coming quarter.
The executives said that a $1-a-month price increase for new users for its two-screen-at-a-time HD plan initiated in the quarter didn't scare potential customers off.
Our two-screen HD plan continues to be the most popular plan choice for new members. We expect [average revenue per user] to rise slowly as members at the new prices grow as a percentage of total membership. There was minimal impact on membership growth from this price change.
The letter added that Netflix doesn't see Amazon Prime and Hulu as a threat because much of the services' content is mutually exclusive, so many users subscribe to all three. The biggest competitor are networks offering TV everywhere apps that let users watch the content from any device. In particular, the two named HBO GO as a direct rival.
Netflix stock was up by about 2% in after-hours trading.