Wall Street expects Netflix to earn three cents a share on revenue of $2.11 billion when Netflix releases its Q2 earnings report today.
Here’s what you should watch for today in Netflix’s Q2 numbers
Hint: Rhymes with “subscribers.”
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Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
Wall Street also doesn’t really care about those numbers. When it comes to Netflix, investors care about its subscribers, and how fast the streaming video company is adding them.
So today, Wall Street wants Netflix to at least beat the guidance it provided last quarter: An increase of 500,000 U.S. subscribers, to get the company’s totals to 47.47 million, and an increase of two million subscribers outside the U.S., which would boost its international totals to 36.53 million.
If you want a more detailed preview of Netflix’s Q2 metrics, we can provide that too, via RBC’s Mark Mahaney:
The caveat here is that Netflix does periodically surprise itself, and the Street, with its subscriber numbers.
Last year, for instance, it said that it was thrown off by a change in the technology powering U.S. credit cards, which caused billing problems and a lower-than-expected number. In the past, it has also cited events like the Olympics or other big TV events for a dropoff in streaming video demand.
And now that Netflix is operating in almost every country in the world except for China, getting a grip on international growth is more challenging, too.
Meanwhile, I’m particularly interested in today’s call since it’s the first one in nine months that I can actually watch and report on, instead of moderating. Of special interest: CEO Reed Hastings’s commentary about his relationship with Comcast, which used to be frosty but appears to be thawing, since Comcast is going to put his service on its X1 set-top boxes.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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