Netflix on course for 100m subs by 2020

Following last week’s news that Netflix expects to achieve penetration in a third of US homes, Digital TV Research has now estimated that the company is aiming for 104 million international subscribers by 2020 – and this is just for the countries where it has already launched.

To date, Netflix reaches almost 54 million subscribers across the globe and according to the company’s latest financial report, its international subscriptions outside of the US have grown 78% year on year to reach just short of 14 million.

Separate research from IHS predicts that over the next four years, international subscriptions will jump from one-tenth to one-fifth of total subs, with the service set to launch in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland and Germany by the end of 2014 – adding five to six million new subscribers.

“Over the next four years, growth rates will accelerate,” said Richard Broughton, director of broadband analysis at IHS Technology.

“Between the expansion of Netflix and its growing popularity in markets such as the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Scandinavia, we anticipate that the company will add a total of eight million new subscribers to its European tally by the end of 2018.”