All those Netflix customers who jumped ship after last year's price hike/Qwikster debacle? It appears that a good number of them have returned to the service.
Speaking at today's J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Netflix CFO David Wells said that approximately a third of new subscribers are "re-joins," or people who dropped Netflix but decided to return.
Netflix keeps customer data for about a year, so that number could be higher, but "but to the extent that we can match the address and credit card information," re-joins are one-third of new customers, Wells said, which is "encouraging."
Last summer, Netflix announced plans for a price hike. A one-DVD plus streaming subscription that was previously $9.99, for example, jumped to $7.99 each, or $15.98 per month. Later, Netflix said it would split the DVD and streaming businesses into two separate companies, dubbed Netflix and Qwikster, but user backlash prompted Netflix to ditch the Qwikster idea. For more, see Netflix Ditches Qwikster: What You Need to Know.
In a recent earnings report, Netflix said it added nearly 3 million streaming members in the first quarter for a total of 26 million global streaming accounts. In the U.S., it added 1.87 million streaming customers.
Wells said today that Netflix realizes that it could take years to recover from the "brand hit," but "we're encouraged by what we see" in terms of customer numbers.
On the other end, however, Wells acknowledged that the repercussions of last year's missteps were widespread. "Even streaming-only subscriptions, who should not have faced an impact reacted to last year" experienced a hit, he said. "We think that's a result of the negative PR, the swirl that was around the brand and the company and that will dissipate over time. We even saw that in Canada, which you could argue should not have seen it."
When asked about a recent update that lets Netflix customers pay their bills via iTunes, Wells denied that it meant Netflix was exploring new business models.
People read into that situation a bit too much, Wells said. "In general, consumers want and expect to access Netflix on any Internet-connected device and to the extent that there's an expectation there, ... we would be interested in doing deals" like the iTunes bill-pay option, he said.
As noted by GigaOm, meanwhile, Netflix has rolled out a revamped version of its Web-based video player. The update includes text overlays and previews while in full-screen mode, as well as an updated control bar, among other things.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
