Netflix streams 2 billion hours over 3 months

CBC News

Posted: Jan 4, 2012 10:09 AM ET

Last Updated: Jan 4, 2012 10:08 AM ET

Netflix's Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said members watched more than 2 billion hours of programming last quarter. (Enrique Marcarian/Reuters)

Netflix members watched more than two billion hours of content on the online streaming service last quarter.

"We were thrilled to deliver more than two billion hours of TV shows and movies across 45 countries in the fourth quarter," CEO Reed Hastings said in a release Wednesday.

Netflix's service, which sells for $8 a month in Canada, allows customers to view an unlimited number of the company's catalog of movies and television shows, which currently number in the thousands.

The eye-popping figure is a new benchmark for the California-based company. It means members watched 666 million hours of programming every month in October, November and December. That works out to more than 22 million hours per day, and an average of more than an hour a day for roughly 20 million Netflix members.

Earnings expected soon

The company is set to reveal its fourth quarter financials in a few weeks, but the viewership data offers a hint of what might be coming. Netflix's subscriber numbers peaked at 24.6 million in the middle of last year, before a series of missteps caused a slew of cancellations.

Last summer, Netflix unveiled a plan to split the DVD-by-mail business from the online business, and charge customers who used both services more on an aggregate level. Opposition to that plan contributed to 800,000 subscribers cancelling in the third quarter, prompting the company to scrap the plan.

It's believed Netflix still has 20 million members across the U.S., Canada and Latin America, but exactly how many remain is not yet known..

Stay Connected with CBC News

Big Box Advertisement

Top News Headlines

Sopranos star James Gandolfini dies in Italy

Sopranos star James Gandolfini dies in Italy: James Gandolfini, whose portrayal of a brutal, emotionally delicate mob boss in HBO's 'The Sopranos' helped create one of TV's greatest drama series and turned the mobster stereotype on its head, died Wednesday in Italy. He was 51. more »

Obesity now recognized as a disease: The American Medical Association has voted to recognize obesity as a disease, while doctors in Canada say they also treat it as such. more »
B.C. First Nation sets fires to save bison: A First Nation band is reviving the age-old practice of controlled burning in order to improve the health of forests and restore the population of the wood bison in a corner of northeastern B.C. more »
1 in 8 bird species threatened with extinction: One in eight bird species worldwide faces the threat of extinction, according to a report released by Birdlife International. more »
Canada buys rare War of 1812 collection for $573K: The government of Canada was the winning bidder for a large collection of letters, maps and other papers that once belonged to Sir John Sherbrooke, the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia who conquered Maine for the British during the War of 1812. The collection sold for $573,000 at auction in London. more »

Must Watch

Latest Technology & Science News Headlines

1 in 8 bird species threatened with extinction

1 in 8 bird species threatened with extinction: One in eight bird species worldwide faces the threat of extinction, according to a report released by Birdlife International. more »

How open is Ottawa's new 'open data' website?: Treasury Board President Tony Clement is touting the federal government's revamped data portal as a "new natural resource." But that online window for previously published data arrives at the same time the government faces controversy over just how open it really is. more »
Genetically-modified crop inventors win World Food Prize: Three pioneers of plant biotechnology whose work brought the world genetically modified crops have been awarded this year's World Food Prize. more »
Anti-social media app helps you avoid other people: A cheeky new app, billed "an experiment in ant-social media," leverages a user's own social network to decrease the likeliness of actually crossing paths with someone in it. more »
'Tweet' gets 21st century update in Oxford dictionary: Tweeting in the social-networking sense has become so pervasive that the Oxford English Dictionary has broken one of its own rules to add new meanings for "tweet" as both a noun and a verb. more »

More Headlines »

Bob McDonald's Blog

After Hadfield, who's the next Canadian in space? Jun. 13, 2013 12:01 PM Canada's singing astronaut announced his retirement this week, leaving Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques to fill his space boots. But there is no date set for when the next Canadian will fly in space.

Quirks & Quarks

June 22: How to Build a Brain Jun. 19, 2013 10:42 AM Scientists are embarking on ambitious projects to understand the incredible complexity of the human brain and to simulate it in a computer. They hope it will help us understand mental disorders, as well as the nature of thought, memory, and conciousness.